Not so on the calm spring evening of Saturday the 11th May 2013. It was champagne and beer that flowed profusely as corks went popping up from the bottle tops and foamy white liquid gushed out of the cans amid the revelry of numerous fans who celebrated Birkirkara’s fourth Malta championship success.

Just after 8.15 pm the Stripes’s unassuming captain and midfielder Gareth Sciberras was on an...