The excellent performance of the national football team against Northern Ireland last Wednesday is still the talking point in local football circles, even though there were still just a few who bothered to go to Ta' Qali on the day of the match.

The crowd at Ta' Qali numbered just a few hundreds and there must have been over a hundred Irish citizens supporting their team throughout most of the 90 minutes, except perhaps, in the final moments, when Malta was awarded a penalty.

It is a pity that the national team's results and performances of recent years has brought about this lethargy on the part of the local fans, considering that international matches used to be attractive to several thousands in the not too distant past.

Yet, Wednesday's performance, though not seen by many at Ta' Qali, was viewed by several thousands later that evening on local TV and the feedback I have received shows that everyone was satisfied with what most termed as a great performance, even if the opponents were not of a high standard.

Everyone agreed that it was a magnificent performance from a Malta side which really deserved a lot better than a 1-1 draw.

At the end, the drawn result still left a lot of satisfaction, because a positive result is always something to be satisfied with.

But when considering what happened on the pitch could have led to a convincing victory and yet this did not materialize, then one might feel a bit disappointed. And that, I believe, is another positive thing as we are now starting to feel disappointed about something we could have achieved but did not!

This result, coming just a few weeks after disastrous results and performances in Sweden and Iceland, is obviously a boost for everyone, that is, the coach, the players, the MFA and the public.

For coach Horst Heese, this must have been his greatest satisfaction since his return. Of course, he would have been more content with a victory especially had George Mallia not missed that last gasp penalty. He had promised to go on the offensive before the match and really believed in his youngsters as he went on record as saying that this was a good chance for a positive result. This obviously came about with the 1-1 draw, but I think he was expecting a victory - on the pitch, Malta was clearly on top last Wednesday, except for the result.

At the final whistle, I quickly remembered the day on 25 November 1990 at Ta' Qali. That day, Malta played against Finland in a European Championship clash and Heese had also said before the match, he felt the time was ripe for a victory. Malta was leading 1-0 with just a few minutes to go, thanks to a Hubert Suda goal. But a rare mistake by John Buttigieg led to an unlikely Finnish equaliser which sent the German coach into an orgy of rage.

I do not think Heese was furious because Mallia missed that penalty on Wednesday evening. After all, this was a friendly, but the German coach also deserved better on this particular evening.

I was the first to have criticised him and his tactics, especially after the Iceland match.

The only thing which I did not like on Wednesday was the selection of Mallia for that penalty kick. For fairness sake, he should not be made a scapegoat for the missed opportunity. After all we have now become accustomed to watch a fairly large number of missed penalties worldwide. Sincerely, I do not know whether Mallia was prepared for it. So far as I know, I have never seen Mallia taking a penalty kick in the past, whether it was for Floriana, Sliema, Birkirkara and even the national team. I might be wrong. Arriving at that moment, I felt it was a bit unjust for the player to be given that responsibility when there were some other good penalty takers on the field at that moment.

Though I still do not agree that certain players are left out of the squad in the knowledge that we have a lot of limitations, however, I must also be among the first to congratulate Heese, wishing him and his bunch of youngsters the best of luck for Malta's forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Hungary and Croatia in early September.

These two matches will definitely be a different kettle of fish. Having seen Hungary and Croatia in their friendlies against Argentina and Brazil also on Wednesday, I can imagine what Heese must be thinking about right now.

For the record, Hungary were very unlucky to have gone down narrowly 1-2 to Argentina while Croatia held the mighty world champions to a 1-1 draw.

Of course, tactics will have to be changed for these two matches. No one will expect the Malta side to go out on attack as it did against N. Ireland on Wednesday. Our opponents will definitely be of a higher level and the fact that we will be playing away from home is another factor which will have to be taken in mind by our technical set-up.

But there is another factor which our coach and players have also to take into consideration. In the past, Malta has managed good results against both sides in their own den. Let us not forget the 1-1 draw against Hungary in 1989 (World Cup) and the narrow 2-1 defeat against Croatia in 1999 (European Championship).

The national team has gone through a very disappointing period during the past ten years or so during which there have been a large number of disappointing performances and heavy defeats. In fact, it was not surprising to see the crowds dwindle for the home matches as there was little or probably nothing to shout about.

But after Wednesday's performance and positive result, everyone is now looking forward to a more convincing and rewarding future. Let me be clear - it will be very difficult to maintain Wednesday's trend in Budapest and Zagreb next month for reasons already mentioned above. But I feel hopeful and confident that our young side, helped with the possible return of at least two seasoned campaigners, will be able to give our more illustrious opponents a good run for their money.