When he was offered the chance to play football against soccer hardman Vinnie Jones in his latest movie, Des McDonald was over the moon.

He breezed through a gruelling audition proving he could cut the mustard on the football field for the film Mean Machine.

But Mac, as he prefers to be called, of Hove, was desperately disappointed during filming when he was left warming the substitutes' bench.

Now he is waiting to see if his few seconds of fame have been left on the editing room floor.

The movie, which opens on Boxing Day, stars Vinnie as jailed former England captain Danny Meehan.

In a remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds classic The Longest Yard, he organises a team of cons to face the prison guards in a football match.

But despite the blood and thunder to be expected in a game between lags and screws, Mac's abilities were not called upon.

He said: "It's one of the most violent football games ever and they only made one substitution per side. I couldn't believe it."

In contrast to the seminal soccer classic Escape to Victory, where players included legends such as Pele, Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles, Mean Machine features mainly semi-professional and amateur players alongside the actors.

Other stars include Vas Blackwood and Jason Statham from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels who play with Vinnie in the prisoners' team.

Mac, of Lansdowne Place, said this made the match pretty realistic but everyone had to prove themselves on the pitch in front of Wally Downes, Vinnie's clubmate in the so-called Crazy Gang at Wimbledon FC.

Mac, player-manager of the Brighton Electricity side, said: "There were 30 people at the audition and they only wanted four for the team.

"I managed to get myself picked somehow but still didn't get on the pitch to play.

"I might be in it for about 30 seconds. I did a bit of training with the other guards.

"You also see the prison governor giving us a rollicking in the changing rooms at one point."

Despite the 40-year-old's lack of proper action on the field, he still enjoyed the experience.