SOCRATES playing for Garforth Town at the age of 50 is a bit of a strange one.

I think you can play as long as you feel you are fit enough and also if you're selected. Sometimes it is taken out of your hands because you are not offered a contract.

I certainly think that as fitness has come into the game more in terms of diet and the way you look after yourself, it has prolonged people's careers.

It used to be the case that when you got to 35 that was the end of it. Even at 32, people considered that you might be gone in the very near future. But now everybody's much more savvy about it. Warm ups and cool downs and things like that are now part and parcel of the game and people have benefited from them.

Before, you would just go out and kick a few balls at the keeper and then go for a pint and a fag after and nobody fluttered an eyelid. But things are a lot more physically defined now and I think that's why a lot of players are lasting longer.

It does take a little longer for people like Steve Davis and Paul Groves to recover from the game. But when it comes down to general levels of fitness, they are a match for anybody at the club.

When I train I always want to be the fittest one there and I like to always be at the front if there's a lot of running to be done to the extent that I'm disappointed if I'm not up there. Paul and Lee Nogan are certainly in that bracket.

Steve is fit but obviously being a centre-half they are not always at the front when you do a lot of running because they do less in the course of a game. But having said that, he came back for pre-season training exceptionally fit and I even said to him at the time that he was fitter then than he was three years ago at Burnley.

I also think that fitness is something that is taken for granted by a lot of the younger ones. But as you get older, knowing that you haven't got too long left in the game it makes you more determined to get fit and stay fit.

When you look at which outfield positions are better suited for older players, I think they are all fairly even. I think you do tend to find though that strikers seem to take the toll a little more than other positions.

Centre-halves sometimes last a little longer as do full-backs. I think it's because being a striker, there's a lot of bursts of energy involved, and the basis is on speed unless you are a big burly lad.

It also depends on whether you are an intelligent type of player.

Whether it's a stunt at Garforth or not, you certainly can't just throw big names in for the sake of being a big name.

Fans are fickle enough to say well, you might be Socrates or Pele, but if you look totally out of place then you're not good enough.

If you bring them back for a testimonial or a one-off then it's great because they are under no pressure to perform as such. But if they are good enough on merit you have to consider it.

You have to be careful, though, because it's your head on the block at the end of the day.

Updated: 09:26 Thursday, November 04, 2004