When footballers and music try to get together the result is more-often-than-not a spectacular own goal.

Kevin Keegan, Ossie Ardilles, Gazza, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle, have all fallen flat on their faces after brief flirtations with the charts.

Enter Barnet FC's Giuliano Grazioli and Mark Rooney. The duo's appearance at an after-school music project on Wednesday last week, certainly proved to be a hit with a classroom full of eight to 11-year-olds at least.

The songwriting project at Barnet Hill Community Primary School in Mays Lane, Barnet, was organised by Helen Reddington, a songwriting lecturer at the University of Westminster, and her colleague Dan Whitehouse.

"There are lots and lots of children who love playing football. There's a girls' and a boys' team and I thought it would be really nice for them to write some songs based on the game," said Mrs Reddington, of Bedford Avenue, Barnet, who has a daughter in Year 6. "I contacted Barnet FC and they were really enthusiastic about it which was great."

Hot shot Grazioli, the Bees' top scorer, and right-back Rooney, were duly dispatched to provide the schoolchildren with some inspiration for their songs.

"One of the questions they were asked was: 'How do you grow a moustache?' by one little boy who just wanted to know. But there were lots of questions about how it feels when you score a goal and the feelings you have being part of a team," said Mrs Reddington.

"Mark Rooney, we discovered, plays the guitar so we gave him a guitar and he played along while the children sung it was really, really great. It wasn't the world's most complicated song but he could play it."

Grazioli, on the other hand, whose silky skills and good looks have won him one or two female admirers, was no less impressive. "He didn't play any instruments," said Mrs Reddington. "He just smiled in time, which he did very well."