If you're in your mid to late 30s, you're possibly adapting to life in the Friday night over-35 league or contemplating the inevitable transition to continue your football career with those in the 40+ age bracket.

At a similar time in life, David Beckham continues to turn out and impress in some of the biggest games of the season and is hinting at a recall to the England national team.

Proof then, that there must be things that you can do to slow down or recoil all of the stuff that is notoriously used as an excuse for failing performances.

You know the ones: getting old, being too stiff, not as flexible as you used to be and even the old favorite of 'my legs have gone'. They are the excuses that are often heard in the changing room of a Sunday morning changing room to excuse an inadequate performance.

Beckham's prominent position in the media spotlight this week is a good time to remind yourself of how important the basics are in maximising your performance on the pitch and just as importantly if you're doing it for enjoyment, prolonging it.

As the season fast comes to a close, it's also the time of year that muscles begin to tire. Wayne Rooney's absence from the Sunderland game last weekend was a reminder that little niggles of things like groin muscles can turn out to mean an absence from the sport that you love and if there's some big games ahead, that's something you're going to want to avoid.

So with that in mind, here are the top five most important things that you should be doing from now until the end of the season to give yourself the best chance of being on the pitch for the big games that await:

1. Fluids - it's important that you drink water little and often through the week, but when it comes to the immediate hours before the game, switch over to the isotonics. These don't have to be expensive, in fact it's actually very easy to make your own.

2. Foods - the night before the game, you need to be looking for carbohydrates. Things like chicken, lasagna, potatoes and even rice. A low fat chicken curry is the favoured dish of Manchester United legend Paul Scholes. It's full of carbohydrates that you're going to need for energy the next day. On the day of the game, breakfast could include stuff like porridge, oatmeal or even scrambled eggs. And just as importantly when you finish the game, you're going to want to switch over to protein. So maybe pack a ham sandwich and a banana milk shake for the journey home and try to consume them no later than 20 minutes after the final whistle.

3. Warm up and stretch - you need to be jogging enough to have some colour in your cheeks (approx 7mins) before you even attempt to kick a ball or stretch. If you don't, it's dangerous and you're hugely increasing the risk of a muscle injury and the type of stretching you should be doing is dynamic - the one where you're on the move whilst you do it.

4. Cool down and stretch - In the cool down your aim is to return your muscles to their original size. So you need to be stretching statically where you hold the muscles in place for 10-15 seconds and you can do a very gentle jog at the end just to finish of and return your heart rate to its resting level.

5. Ice baths - this is very important to help reduce any little tears you might have picked up in the muscles. You don't always know that you have, but a day or two later when your muscles are achy and sore, that's the sign that these they have been damaged. At this point it isn't a problem, but if you get a succession of these it can be and at this time of year is common, when you have a few games a week, your muscles will benefit from you doing this.