On Thursday 21^st March, 2019 Cheshire FA hosted a disability football festival on the 3G pitch for local specialist support schools.  Seven schools from across Cheshire, eleven teams and over 60 pupils from Key Stage 2 and 3 played in the festival. 

The games were 5 a side with teams playing against each other in a round robin format.  The top two sides then competed in a final.  The eventual winners of the festival were as follows

• Key Stage 2                       Dorin Park School from Chester
• Key Stage 3                       Adelaide School from Crewe
• Fair Play Award                Hebden Green School from Winsford  

Adelaide School from Crewe were the winners of the KS3 group and will now go onto represent Cheshire at the regional finals at the Cliff Training Ground, Manchester in June. 

To deliver the festival Cheshire FA accessed a small grant from the English Schools FA which enabled them to provide high quality facilities, referees, medals, trophies and certificates.  Cheshire FA will be delivering another festival in May for specialist support schools in Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.   

Bridget Aldridge from Dorin Park said

I am absolutely thrilled and proud of the team! They came back showing off their trophy and certificates.  Thank you for organising the event.

Daniel Landstrom, Football Development Officer at Cheshire FA said;

Disability football in Cheshire is thriving and it’s great to see so many disabled young people playing football.  The standard was really high and everyone enjoyed playing in the festival which is another fantastic example of Cheshire FA providing Football4All.  We don’t normally engage with local schools but we felt this was a good opportunity to engage high numbers of disabled pupils and help sign post them into local clubs who deliver disability football sessions.