THEY'RE from a small County Durham town and they're the football champions of all England.

Consett Juniors Under 12s five-a-side team have beaten opposition from across England, including London, Manchester and Merseyside, to become the national champions.

Club secretary David Pyke said: "The club is extremely proud of the team. This is an outstanding achievement which will be hard to match in the future."

The team became county champions last November to qualify for the Northern England championships. There they beat teams from Merseyside and Yorkshire before losing in the final to West End Boys from Manchester.

But being finalists meant they qualified for the national championships and the team beat sides from Leicestershire, Wales, London and Berkshire before meeting Manchester's West End Boys again in the semi-final. This time they won 3-1 and went on to beat a London team 2-1 in the final.

Since the victory last month two of the boys, David Wardle and Andrew Wright, have been selected to represent Sunderland Academy and Hartlepool School of Excellence.