Football fun in Coatbridge

A Coatbridge school welcomed over 900 kids and hosted a special football tourament earlier this month.

Organised by Celtic Boys Club, the tournament marked their 50th anniversary which is being celebrated this year.

St Ambrose High School held the festival of football which saw teams from all over Scotland, and Ireland, travel to Coatbridge to take part.

The weekend was a huge success, with over a thousand spectators turning up to support the players over the course of the tournament.

Monklands was represented by four teams at St Ambrose as Kirkshaws Colts, FC Kirkwood, Dunbeth FC and Airdrieonians BC turned out.

The hosts finished the tournament with their heads held high after reaching two finals in the 2000 and 2001 age groups, and club treasurer David Henderson is delighted with the weekend overall.

He said:“We wanted to do something to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

“The festival was a brilliant way to do it, and the facilities at St Ambrose were absolutely perfect.

“We had about 160 boys from our club playing throughout the age groups and everyone that played got a medal for participating.”

The Celtic Boys Club were established in 1966 by Jock Stein and tradtitionally used in a feeder system for Celtic before the introduction of pro-youth teams in the modern age.

Past players include Paul McStay, Roy Aitken and Davie Weir whilst some more modern success stories are David Marshall and Charlie Mulgrew.

Had a ball Youngsters line up to collect their medals