Ask anyone who knows me and they will confirm that my international football allegiances are pretty much equally divided between the country of my birth and my adopted home.

England will always have a special place in my heart having been born there and supported the national team through thick and plenty of thin since way back in the Ron Greenwood days.

But Malta is the place I now call home and, quite naturally, I want nothing more than to see our national team deliver the goods on the pitch.

Over the years, however, it has always been easier to support England. They may never have achieved true greatness but there have at least been moments when it looked like it might happen.

Malta, on the other hand, despite the occasional spirited performance, have failed to make anything like the same sort of progress made by the other small footballing nations.

On Wednesday, however, my previously settled preconceptions were turned on their heads.

While England were busy in Croatia putting in a performance of severe ineptitude, Malta were happily playing their way to one of the best victories in the nation’s history.

England looked confused, dazed and totally unable to adapt to the tactics that their manager had opted for. Malta looked neat, tidy and extremely dangerous on the counter attack.

While Wayne Rooney ran around like a headless chicken in Zagreb, Michael Mifsud showed him how it should be done at Ta’ Qali. While Paul Robinson participated in one of the greatest own goals in history, Justin Haber flung himself in front of everything the Hungarian strikers threw at him to keep them at bay.

England eventually slumped to a 2-0 defeat in a game they could ill-afford to lose while Malta beat their opponents 2-1 to register their first competitive home victory in 31 years.

England made me hang my head in shame. Malta made me scream with joy at the final whistle.

I have to admit this reversal of roles took me totally by surprise. But in a good way.

Obviously when push comes to shove, it is still England that have the realistic chance of qualifying for the finals in 2008. Despite the magnificent win, Malta are still a long way off having any realistic chance of making it to a major tournament.

But most importantly for Mifsud, Haber, Schembri and the rest of the boys, the belief that they can actually beat bigger teams should now be there. They will lose a lot more on the way, but they will also feel they are capable of winning a few too. And that is extremely positive for the Maltese game as a whole.

My only regret is that the two games on Wednesday clashed in terms of time meaning it was a case of constantly zapping from one to other to try to keep up with the action.

In the past I would almost certainly have given England preference. After their respective performances on Wednesday that will no longer be the case.

In fact, come the next round of qualifying matches I think you will find a lot, lot more people over at Ta’ Qali cheering on the boys in the flesh.

And I will probably be one of them.

Spectacular own goal

Although I touched on the subject earlier, I think it is only fair to look at the spectacular England own goal in a little more detail.

Since Wednesday, goalkeeper Paul Robinson and defender Gary Neville have come in for all sorts of criticism from the media and so-called experts.

Well, there was a lot wrong with England’s performance in Croatia but, if there were a couple of players who do not deserve criticism, then it is these two.

Both played with passion and purpose – Neville in an unfamiliar right side of midfield position and Robinson in a severely overworked goal.

The own goal was a one-in-a-million fluke. In fact, to my knowledge I have only seen it happen once before when Tim Flowers was beaten by a fluke bounce from a Stan Collymore shot a decade or so ago.

To criticise Robinson for missing the ball or Neville for playing it back to him is just plain madness. If these lads play another 50 games each this season, which they will, it won’t happen again. If they were to play another 500 each it probably wouldn’t happen.

So lay off the lads. If nothing else they contributed a moment of humour to an otherwise miserable evening.

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