This week I joined several other local legends of football in an over-forties football match.

Well, we all class ourselves legends after a certain age.

A new league has started at the Lancashire Football Association County Ground in Leyland.

The problem with footballers is that, as you get older, you tend to think you can still make 100-yard runs and then get back to defend the next corner.

After ten minutes I realised that the only two words a footballer of my age needs to learn – ‘cover me’.

These two words are cop-out for an over-forties footballer. Thankfully the right winger was himself thankful as it meant he didn’t have to cross the halfway line.

Soon enough you know your limits and for periods it became a scrappy affair with the odd late tackle. Not out of malice but simply because the legs don’t connect with the brain properly any more.

The brain says I can make the ball but the legs have given up.

I have to respect the fifty year-olds on the pitch. Either they were fifty or they played like fifty year-olds.

On the whole though I have to say this category of football is a very good idea.

The pace of game was actually quicker than some of us had expected.

It didn’t help that players had not kicked a ball for several years. In the end the game ended goalless and we walked away knowing we would be back next week, seven days older.

In the coming week we will be all settling down to watch the World Cup. I have to say the World Cup is a like a ritual for me. I will watch the live games as well as the highlights.

I will also not watch the games with the people who jump on the bandwagon and talk during the matches.

Whilst we want England to do well, let us just pause and think for a moment – we have not got a single truly world-class player on the pitch.

The sooner we admit this to ourselves and not get taken in by the billboards and adverts then the sooner we can watch the game in peace.