WHEN identical triplets Laura, Chloe and Megan Summers first played together in the same football team, their manager had to adopt special tactics to tell them apart.

Flummoxed Dave Scott was left with a headache trying to work out who was who, so he issued an emergency plea to their mum to give them different hair-styles.

From then on, Laura was sent out to play with a pony-tail, Megan had a single plait, and Chloe was identified from the sidelines by two plaits.

"It was the only way I knew who I was shouting out," recalls Dave, the inspiration behind the Spraire Lads and Lasses in Darlington.

That was a decade ago when the triplets first started playing for Spraire Lasses as eight-year-olds. The team was desperate for players at the time and goalkeeper Sophie Burgess was a neighbour of the Summers triplets.

"The next thing I knew, she'd delivered not one new player but three – and they all looked the same!" recalls Dave who looks after 250 players and 16 teams in the extraordinary Spraire footballing family.

Now 18, and about to head off to separate universities, the triplets are hoping for a fairytale ending when they play in the final of the Durham FA Women's Development League Cup Final on Sunday.

"It would just be the perfect way for our time with Spraire Lasses to finish if we could lift the cup," says Laura.

This season has seen a remarkable transformation in the team's fortunes. Last season, they finished bottom of the league on the back of defeats that included a thrashing of 20-0. Struggling for players, and tired of picking the ball out of their net, the team came close to folding.

But under the guidance of coach Ronnie Joyeux, the Spraire Lasses have galvanised themselves to be placed a commendable fifth in the league with games in hand, and reaching their first cup final.

Laura plays centre-midfield, Chloe's a centre-back, Megan a left-winger, and all are also qualified referees. "We spend so much time together, I honestly think we have a sixth sense," says Megan. "We know what each other's going to do and that can really pay off in a match."

And Chloe's convinced they can beat opponents Gateshead Rutherford in Sunday's final at Durham Riverside. "We've beaten them before so we just have to work hard for each other," she says.

Proud mum and dad Amanda and Nigel will be cheering them on, and so will Dave Scott who has watched their talents blossom over the past ten years.

"They've been an absolute credit to the club and it would be such a fitting finale if they could lift the trophy on Sunday," he says.

If the dream comes true, he'll be the first to run onto the pitch to give the triumphant triplets a pat on the back. It won't matter which one he congratulates first – he won't have a clue which one's which anyway.