Darlington Cleveland Bridge won the Darlington Charity Cup sponsored by Darlington Building Society by beating Coxhoe Athletic 3-1 in the Final held at Feethams, Darlington.

A skillful and competitive game was marred by an early incident when Coxhoe forward, Phillip Lawson suffered a broken leg in a challenge with the Cleveland Bridge keeper after only two minutes.

Coxhoe never recovered from this early blow and found themselves two goals down after 13 minutes courtesy of strikes from Duane Beagle and Wayne Buckley.

Coxhoe, however, continued to press for the remainder of the game but found the Cleveland Bridge keeper in fine form.

When the keeper was beaten, the woodwork came to Bridges' rescue on at least three occasions.

Just when Coxhoe were on the brink of a breakthrough their hopes were dashed when Ian Raper added a third to make the final score 3-0.

Under the terms of the competition, Cleveland Bridge will now choose a local Charity to benefit from a donation of £500 raised by the Charity Cup Committee.

The Darlington Charity Cup was founded in 1908 and is one of the longest running Charity Cups in the region.

Traditionally the Final has been held at Feethams and the Committee is grateful to Darlington Football Club for making the facilities available.

Darlington Budding Society has sponsored the tournament for the past six seasons and is keen to support such a high profile grass roots soccer competition.

Presenting the trophy to the winning captain, David Copland, Marketing and Communications Manager at Darlington Building Society said: "Congratulations to Cleveland Bridge FC, they really deserve to win the Darlington Charity Cup this year.

"Darlington Building Society is dedicated to looking after local interests so we are delighted to sponsor a competition which provides so much enjoyment to local footballers and benefits local charities at the same time.