Gibraltar v Slovakia: I had to get permission from work just to train, says Jeremy Lopez The balance between work and training can be difficult. If you are selected in the squad for an away game or a tournament, the Gibraltar FA issues you with a special leave letter to show your employer, but they rarely issue it more than three days before a game and employers do not always accept them. I went down to the Gibraltar FA's headquarters first thing on Thursday morning to pick up my letter. Thankfully, my work accepted it but had they not it would mean either missing the game or losing my job, one or the other. To be honest, I'd rather lose my job. Gibraltar's a small country with a population of less than 30,000. We only have one full-sizeed football pitch which everyone from juniors through to the senior squad has to share. We get priority but still only train once a week which, if we are lucky, will be on that pitch. If not, we get a smaller pitch which is not helpful tactically because of its width and length. All the club sides in Gibraltar also share the pitch. Even though there are eight teams in the Premier Division, including my club, Manchester 1962 FC, there can never be more than one game played at once. One of the major issues we have is allocation but we are hoping to build another pitch in the next three or four years. Tuesday's game is being played four hours away from Gibraltar at a stadium in the Algarve because our home ground, the Victoria Stadium, does not meet Uefa requirements. We left for Portugal by coach Saturday evening and will be travelling home straight after the game, arriving back in Gibraltar at 2am or 3am on Wednesday. It is a case of five hours' sleep and then back to work. We have a few friends and family coming along to watch on Tuesday and I have heard that some local travel agencies have arranged coaches to take some supporters over. I would be delighted if 500 people came. This squad includes a lot of new players who I have never played with, so I've no idea how we will play together. Slovakia are obviously going to be a brilliant side but if we all do our job properly, who knows what could happen?