FORGIVE me for being a tad sentimental, but the most heart-warming football story for me this weekend wasn’t City beating United in The Manchester derby (although I did enjoy hearing Sir Alex Ferguson admit to being embarrassed by the scale of the thrashing, United’s worst defeat since 1955).

And it wasn’t QPR beating Chelsea, even if it did remind me of some of the upsets Sam Allardyce’s newlypromoted Wanderers caused back in the day when they were dismissed as Premiership upstarts.

No, the best tale of the weekend involved a team umpteen levels down from the Premier League, Gosport Borough, who play at Privett Park (capacity 4,500).

The Southern League Division One South and West outfit coaxed veteran striker Steve Claridge out of retirement at the “tender”

age of 45 . . . and he scored the only goal in their FA Trophy tie against Sholing.

I’ve never met Claridge but, hearing him recount the tale of the latest chapter in his long and varied career – more than 1,000 professional and semi-professional games for 24 different clubs – I couldn’t help but feel inspired by his enthusiasm.

I’ve listened to countless players down the years describe their joy at having scored a goal (the ultimate experience for any footballer, whether striker or defender) but I’ve never felt so chuffed for a bloke as Claridge when he described to his mates on Radio 5 Live’s Six-O-Six phone-in on Saturday evening (he’s a successful media pundit, these days of course) the emotion of scoring on his debut for his new club.

Claridge never really hit the heights as a player or as a manager – scoring in the 1996 play-off final to help Leicester City into the Premiership and in the League Cup final a year later being the highlights of his career – but he is one of the game’s true enthusiasts and, still prepared to turn out and put his reputation on the line in his midforties, he sets an example many of our preening, pampered stars would do well to sit up and take notice of.