When it occurs in football, however, it is a completely different matter and unbelievably it did yesterday as Vanuatu, ranked 200th in the FIFA world rankings, inflicted a Pacific Games record loss on the Federated States of Micronesia.

Having already suffered a 30-0 defeat to Tahiti in their Pool A opener on Friday (July 3), and then proceeded to lose 38-0 to Fiji on Sunday (July 5), Micronesia’s latest drubbing, if that’s even the correct word for it, meant they ended the tournament with a goal difference of minus 114.

The only saving grace for Micronesia is that it is unlikely to go down in the record books as the biggest defeat in the history of international football as the country is not a member of FIFA, and it was an under-23 game. That unwanted accolade will most probably remain with American Samoa, who lost 31-0 to Australia in 2001. 

During my very early journalistic career working as the Altrincham and District Amateur Saturday Football League’s press officer, I invariably came across some scarcely believable results when writing weekly round-ups for my two local newspapers.

But even they pale into insignificance compared to those of Micronesia over the course of this past week. It quite simply should not be happening at any level of football, let alone at a continental competition.

With the news of Micronesia’s first two results making headlines far beyond the Pacific region, insidethegames made an executive decision to ensure we had the third game covered on our Pacific Games live blog, being managed by both me and my colleague Liam Morgan here in Papua New Guinea's capital.

Sitting down at a pitchside desk approximately 15 minutes before kick-off, I knew I had to be quick with fulfilling my regular social media duties.

Goals were inevitable for Vanuatu, who had drawn 1-1 with Fiji and narrowly lost 2-1 to Tahiti in their previous two Pool A encounters, and sure enough within minutes of me informing insidethegames’ Facebook and Twitter followers of my whereabouts, they had already established a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Tony Kaltack, Bill Nicholls and Jean Kaltack.

From then until half-time I barely had chance to even peer my eyes above my laptop screen, forced into simply noting down the player numbers of the myriad of goalscorers being recorded by the Oceania Football Confederation representative sat next to me before referring to my team sheet and frantically updating the live blog.

Half-time and it was 24-0! I could only apologise for the lack of description surrounding each goal. Unfortunately there was not much time for that such was the rate of Vanuatu’s scoring - just shy of one every two minutes when you take into account that there was four minutes of stoppage time.

Having come into the match with a goal difference of minus one, Vanuatu knew they required a winning margin of 40 to better that of Fiji and give them a chance of qualification for the Pacific Games semi-finals, something which was still dependent on Tahiti beating Fiji in the day’s later game and ultimately did not go their way. 

Within minutes of the restart, Jean Kaltack got things rolling again as he completed his triple hat-trick en route to scoring an unbelievable 16 goals. It was not until Vanuatu reached the 42 mark that I was actually able to sit back and appreciate just how big the gulf in class was between the two sides, amid a brief lull in the goalmouth action.

Although it has to be taken into consideration that the team was predominantly made up of teenagers and had little or no experience of even playing 11-a-side football, let alone in a continental tournament, I have to say I was flabbergasted by the sheer lack of understanding of the most basic elements of the game from positioning to communication, while the technical ability of some would not even be fit to grace the ranks of a Sunday league pub team. As fellow journalist Kevin Darling put it, the problem is it's not a squad of footballers, it's just a squad of normal blokes. 

"The goalkeeper told me he went in goal for the first time ever three weeks ago," he told Sky News.

"And it showed, to be fair."

Micronesia coach Stan Foster, who took up his role earlier this year, remained upbeat in the aftermath as he had done following the two previous maulings. Cries of encouragement for his bewildered players left me wincing at times given the utter ridiculousness of what was unfolding before us, but I can only respect a man who is willing to take the brunt of the media attention in uncharted circumstances for a football manager.

"It has been tough but I've just been telling them [the players] they're learning from every experience they get here," said Foster.

"That's invaluable. Every game that we play now is a big stepping stone for us into the mountains of the highest ends of soccer.

"They [the players] are very committed now. They see what is on offer by coming to tournaments. It's not just the Games, but also the experience of new countries.

“Most of these have never been out of their villages, let alone onto another island.

“This is huge. It's really been a huge step up for these guys and they've just been overawed. They need these sort of tournaments to become competitive in the future."

There were fears that Micronesia would not be invited back to compete at the 2019 Pacific Games in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga following their disastrous campaign, but the country has been told this will not be the case.

“That was big relief for me, because I was really worried the organisers would take us out of the competition because of our scores,” added Foster.

“I've been assured that we will be allowed to come back and that they are aware that this is a development squad.

“They are boys, not men and they have been playing against well-seasoned men. I'm hoping the majority of our boys will be here for at least eight years.”

Asked whether he will be in charge of Micronesia at the next edition of the Pacific Games, Foster laughingly said: "That's to be discussed, they [the Micronesia Football Association Board] might not want me there after these scores.

"I'm hoping that FIFA will be coming [to Micronesia] next week for inspections and to hopefully affiliate us with Asia.

"If they do, that will lead to us having technical assistance and everything else that brings. That would be a huge boost."

If indeed he is to be, he faces a mammoth task over the next four years just to turn his side into one that genuinely warrants the opportunity to compete at continental level.

Forget about actually winning games, or even picking up draws for that matter. If Micronesia can manage to avoid a two-figure defeat at the 2019 Pacific Games it will mark a gigantic improvement on their showing here. That in itself sums up just how poor it really was. 

Yesterday's match is certainly one for the "I was there" bank. I'm sure the memories will come flooding back if we ever see a 47 niller but I am not holding my breath it will happen anytime soon.