THE incident with the footballers at the Cheltenham Festival this week just shows how aware players of all sports need to be when they are out.

We are always representing our club, whether we are in team uniform or out on a Saturday night, and with social media, you constantly have the possibility of being seen doing something and for that reason the whole time you have to think you are representing your club.

Obviously we are a lower level sport, we are a much lower profile, but you are aware there are certain things you shouldn’t be doing and there are certain ways you should be behaving.

Part of the privilege of playing even semi pro sport, let alone professional sport, is making sure your behaviour is at a level where, whatever you do, you’re a good representative for your club.

There are certain things in our contract to do with public image and to do with how you represent the club but luckily I don’t think I have ever been in a situation where something like that has come up.

There were a few tweets from Basingstoke players last weekend when they won the league - while they were celebrating, they tweeted a former club of theirs.

The next morning they apologised so it seems like the club may have talked to those players I’m sure if it came up, if they felt a player had done something wrong, then the club could step in and either make them put it right or there’s a certain amount of discipline they could use.

It’s just another thing to prove that you should be behaving right anyway. Even if that sort of behaviour was done by Joe Public, it’s still not something you should do.

I wouldn’t say it’s a burden or anything because ultimately, there’s a certain way you should act.

In the back of your mind there’s the fact you are representing the club, if you’re on a night out, there are certain things you wouldn’t get involved in or would avoid.

It is down to us as players to be aware of that and ensure we are representing the club in the best possible light.