It was one of those times when God intervened and levelled the playing field, one of those rare occasions when I played football and was on the best team.

You see, playing football when you are in your 40s is exactly the same as when you are in your teens – you get the very good players, the average players and the poor players. The very good ones are also the ones who complain most about everything and blame everyone else – especially when they are at fault.

That is how it was at my school – De Las Salle College in Malta – and that is how it is now, more than 20 years later, with my club FC Othmarsingen. This difference in skill inevitably leads to a drop in confidence making the gap between players far wider than it really is. This is bloody annoying!

We are now in the winter break and training consists of playing mini best-of-three three-a-side games, with the winning team staying on.

Last training, I was in a team with two average players and one poor. There were two other teams, each with two very good players and one poor player. We were destined to get our derriere whipped.

But it didn’t happen. We played better, ran faster, tackled more and scored classier goals. There were even a couple of back heels (all from our team) and I even took a pot shot with my left foot. The very good players didn’t know what hit them, and we didn’t know what had suddenly happed to our feet. And I left the pitch uninjured, which, in itself, is nothing short of a miracle.

Tonight we have football again. So please, dear God, remember to hit the ‘level playing field’ switch again if you don’t mind.