He then celebrated what was a breathtaking goal – the best I’ve seen this season - by removing his shirt over his head. It was a special goal, fitting of a higher stage, with a celebration copied directly from the top end of the game.

It also reminded me of how often what happens in elite football, good and not so good, is then copied in the park.

A hot topic currently raising its head at the top end is diving. While I don’t believe that diving is currently a significant problem in parks football for example – there’s not much tolerance for that sort of behaviour – we can’t be complacent.

Perhaps diving is a reflection of the high-stakes in the modern professional game, but players at the top level have a responsibility as role-models towards the millions of fans and amateur players who follow and sometimes copy their every move on the pitch.

No-one wants to see diving in the game. It’s cheating the referee, fellow players, the fans, and the game itself. In this multi-camera age, offenders are being found out and in many cases subsequently vilified.

While I believe talk of an epidemic is exaggerated, it is nevertheless a concern.

The FA has led discussions with the PFA, LMA, referees and leagues on this issue and I’m delighted with how seriously they are taking it. The first meeting took place at Soho Square earlier this month and more will follow in the coming months.

We worked together last summer on confrontational and abusive behaviour towards referees and have a shared responsibility to protect the integrity of the game. We are also taking the debate to FIFA.

There is a definite need for close co-operation and self-policing. Everyone in the game has to take personal responsibility if we want to get rid of diving. It is essential that managers, players and clubs are closely involved as they are the ones who suffer the most directly from it.

It is about players cutting it out of their game, managers refusing to tolerate it among their own players, referees spotting it and punishing it when it happens, and governing bodies supporting them.

Referees have a difficult job, we all know that. Some players are highly skilled at going to ground under no or little contact. Sometimes players simply jump out the way of a challenge, sometimes contact is difficult to assess.

The referee’s task is not helped by players waving imaginary cards, trying to get other players booked or sent off.

I have spoken to Keith Hackett who has told me that he is working with his officials to improve the detection of diving and referees are getting closer to incidents in order to get a better viewing angle.

The number of bookings for simulation – diving - has gone up substantially this season. We need to give referees confidence in making these difficult decisions.

They have to make split-second judgements on incidents happening at top speed, without the benefit of replays from different angles which is afforded the armchair viewer.

The FA’s powers to deal with diving retrospectively are limited, largely due to FIFA’s reluctance to agree to measures that could be seen as re-refereeing games.

As a result, we cannot take action on incidents that the referee has seen and dealt with at the time. We can only take action on incidents which the referee doesn’t see.

However, we are in on-going discussions with FIFA on retrospective disciplinary action, and have raised diving as a priority area where video evidence could be used.

We also stressed the need to tackle the issue at a recent meeting with FIFA and insisted that clamping down on diving be made a priority area at this summer’s World Cup. I have seen the suggestion raised that diving should be penalised by a red card.

This would require a major change to the Laws of the Game, which are universal and cannot be amended without FIFA’s support.

Neither The FA nor any other national association can unilaterally change the Laws of the Game. In any case, a clampdown on diving would require a worldwide approach: it is not a uniquely English concern.

English football traditionally has an international reputation for fair play, for a refusal to cheat.

We need to ensure that players like the young lad I watched last weekend take inspiration from the professionals for their skill, technique and athleticism alone, not from the ability of a minority to deceive the referee and their fellow players.

Brian Barwick