A FOOTBALL club has been saved from certain closure after a community rallied round to raise vital funds.

The Willington Association Football Club faced closure just five years short of its 100th anniversary when its main building developed a hole in the roof.

Chairman Alistair Melville made an impassioned plea through The Northern Echo and its sister paper The Advertiser, in June, for help after bids to the National Lottery to fund the repairs were rejected.

The appeal resulted in the town's Workingmen's club running a special fundraising night and local company CA Group Ltd, from Evenwood, donating the materials for the new roof.

Mr Melville said: "The generous donation from the CA Group resulted in us being able to get match funding from Wear Valley District Council's Single Regeneration Fund. And Willington Workingmen's Club raised a substantial amount from a charity night.''

The club's junior and senior season in the Albany Northern League came to an abrupt end this year after water was found seeping through the roof of the building and over the light fittings in the changing rooms and kitchen.

Paul Hanratty, marketing manager at CA Group Ltd, said the company's Building Products Division donated the roofing materials.

He said: "The company always takes a fairly strong local view. When the situation was explained that the club was in dire straits and the kids were going to have to go elsewhere we decided to help.

"It provided more of a community source than just helping a football club and the alternative was closure.''

Work on the roof and the fixtures and fittings inside the building have now been completed.

It is not just the footballers whose activities have been saved but the building is the heart of the community with different organisations using it for events.

Christina Jackson, from Willington Community Partnership, said the club is the main meeting place for the town's annual carnival.

She said: "I am absolutely ecstatic that its been fixed and I'd like to say a very big thankyou to all those who have worked so hard on it.

"If we couldn't have got it fixed it would have been the end of what we know as Willington AFC.''