Neighbourhood lifted up by position in football game (7)
I believe the answer is:
purlieu
'neighbourhood' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'lifted up by position in football game' is the wordplay.
'lifted' is a reversal indicator (going up in down clue).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'position' becomes 'lie' (lie can mean to place or position).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'football game' becomes 'RU' (short for rugby union, type of rugby football).
'up' reversed gives 'pu'.
'lie' going within 'ru' is 'rlieu'.
'pu'+'rlieu'='PURLIEU'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for purlieu that I've seen before include "Outlying or neighbouring area" , "Frequently-visited place" , "territory, peripherally" , "Land bordering a forest still subject to forest laws" , "The area near a place" .)