A JUNIOR football club has been granted much needed funds to help with developments and repairs in the team clubhouse.

St Marys Juniors FC, in Bishop Auckland, has been awarded £3,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards essential work during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses, the team's annual tournament was cancelled, which was a key fund raising event, and the sport and physical activity sector are now facing a period of uncertainty.

In response, Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through Covid-19.

Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active, but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.

The grant will allow Bishop Auckland St Mary’s Juniors to do essential repairs to the clubhouse, and also goal repairs and replacements.

The Northern Echo:

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future.

“The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to BA St Mary's Juniors FC to help it through these extremely challenging times.”

Steve Coulthard, chairman of BAFC, said: "We are absolutely over the moon to get this grant after we have had to cancel our annual tournament due to the virus.

"The tournament is our biggest fund raiser of the year and all our teams look forward to it, during which we invite 50 other teams of all ages from all over the North-East.

"We also had to cancel our annual presentation day, which is also a great event, so we are all very disappointed.

"This money will go towards doing our clubhouse up and replacing some damaged goals which will benefit all our 21 teams."