A TEACHER, who started an inspirational football club, has led a team of young disabled footballers to gold medal Olympic glory.

Bobby Coltman, a maths teacher at Sedgefield Community College, led four North-East footballers to international success at the Special Olympics held in Los Angeles last month (July).

The 27-year-old coach and his players were selected to be part of the Great Britain 11-a-side team following an outstanding season for the club, Beamish Dynamos Football Club, where they won the top division in the North-East Ability Counts League, the largest disability league in the country.

Mr Coltman said: “It has been an unforgettable journey we have been privileged to experience.

“We are incredibly proud of how well the lads played throughout the tournament. Four of my local players played the full game in the final, which finished 3-3 and went to a very nervy penalty shoot out which was finally won 5-3 against Bangladesh.”

The gold medal winners are Andy Hetherington, 27, from Stanley; Alex Sawyer-Copus, 17, from Houghton-le-Spring; Michael MacGurk, 19, from Leadgate and Brad Whitfield, 19, from Annfield Plain.

The inspirational club was founded seven years ago by Mr Coltman and his father, Tom. Mr Coltman’s older sister has a learning disability and a lot of her friends with similar disabilities were football fans.

The Beamish Dynamos now has four teams with nearly 40 players signed on.

Mr Coltman said: “They have eaten up every challenge and opportunity we have given them, and their success is down to their positive attitude towards developing their skills.

“Hopefully we can use this to inspire another generation of players to get involved with our club and we are working hard to open up more opportunities like this to the rest of the players at Beamish in the future.”