‘It’s great that people who have a disability are now being recognised’
Introducing the most inspirational Pompey team you’ll ever meet ...
Ray Westbrook is ready to seize the opportunity to showcase amputee football in front of a national audience this weekend.
The Pompey Amputee team captain will lead his team out against Peterborough in the Amputee final of the FA Disability Cup on Sunday.
But this is not just any showpiece for the players involved, with BT Sport providing live coverage of an amputee match for the first time in the UK when the Blues take on Posh at St George's Park.
Cosham-based Westbrook, a full England international, has long been waiting for this moment and is relishing both Pompey and Peterborough being handed a televised plat
form for their seven-a-side final.
He said: 'I’ve been playing for 16 years now and we’ve been trying to push the sport to be more well known across the country. This final is the perfect opportunity for us to showcase amputee football.
‘The Paralympics and stuff like that being on TV has helped push that (disability sport being recognised). It’s great that everyone with disabilities now gets recognised because it is hard what they’ve overcome in their lives and they push onto achieve something else which is amazing.'
The inspirational Westbrook was the man who founded the Blues' amputee team in 2016.
After contacting Pompey in the Community, he helped get a team of players together and they have gone onto reach the EAFA Premier League.
The 39-year-old, who works as a roofer and still plays Sunday League football with friends for Cosham Park Rangers by using a prosthetic leg, was pleasantly surprised how quickly the squad got up to speed with the amputee game after the Pompey team was formed.
He said: 'To be fair, when I first started it off I didn’t expect the standard of the lads who turned up to be as good as it was.
‘I still play Sunday League football with my prosthetic on. I run around normally and I played for Cosham Park Rangers with my mates last season.
‘It was football that caused it (amputation) but I didn’t find amputee football until I was about 25.
‘Back then it was even less known than what it is now, so there were only four teams nationwide.
‘I used to have to travel to Manchester to play amputee football.
‘It was the Man United
Foundation who were supporting it at the time.'
Watch Pompey Amputees take on Peterborough in the Amputee final of the FA Disability Cup on BT Sport or the channel's Facebook page from 11am on Sunday.
■ Pompey’s TJ Yates is so excited about being broadcast live on BT Sport he’s going to record the show so he can watch himself when he gets home.
Yates, 30, will be part of the Blues team to face Peterborough on Sunday.
The Leigh Parkbased player admitted it’s a day he never thought would arrive for him - but he cannot wait to showcase his potential on such a huge stage.
Yates said: ‘Never in a million years would I have thought this would happen in England (amputee match broadcast on TV). ‘When we had the Euros in 2017 it was on more like the Turkish TV.
‘Getting told BT Sport were going to be hosting the whole weekend - it’s been non-stop with everyone saying, ‘we’re going to be on TV and to record it.’
‘I want to watch it when I get home just to see the highlight reel at the end of it.
‘You’ve got Powerchair football, Cerebral Palsy, blind football - a lot of people don’t know much about disability sport and football so it’s going to be an insight into what’s involved.’
Yates only began playing in
When I first started it off I didn’t expect the standard to be as good as it was Pompey amputee captain Ray Westbrook
2016 after being persuaded by Westbrook to give amputee football a try.
He had previously excelled at wheelchair basketball, representing the Great Britain under-23 squad and travelling to Italy, Holland, Turkey, Germany, and Spain to play. Yates was part of the GB team that won a silver medal in the European Championships in Italy.
Although not keen at playing football at first after being asked by Westbrook, he has gone onto represent England’s amputee team in the five years since starting out..
Incredibly Yates, who lost his left leg in an accident at Hayling amusement park aged 15, had to retrain to kick a ball with just his weaker right foot.
He conceded it took the best part of a year to get up to speed with amputee football, but he has made great progress since starting with the Blues.
Yates said: ‘Ray asked me to come years ago, but I had that mindset that it wasn’t real football so I didn’t want to play.
‘He came back to me a few years later and said give it a try, I had one training session, then I felll back in love with the sport. I’ve not looked back and that’s now six years down the line.
‘It took me a while to be able to run with the ball with my crutches, that came, then it was a case of developing my shot.
‘Before I lost my left leg I was left-footed so I had to readapt how to kick a ball and how to get the power. My power comes from the outside of my boot and it’s like recreating that left foot technique.
‘The hardest bit was to overcome losing my dominant leg and then trying to make my other leg my dominant leg.
‘Over time it’s just come natural, nine times out of 10 I hit it hard, and people don’t like getting in the way of it which is even better.’
I was left-footed so I had to readapt how to kick a ball and howtogetthepower
TJ Yates