Champion 1973 losers' team plays again in Little Downham

The 'champion losers' of Downham Feoffees Under-10 team line up

A school football team that became famous as "champion losers" in 1973 will reunite this weekend for an anniversary match.

Each player of the under-10 team was pictured in the Daily Mirror 50 years ago and they received replica shirts.

An article in the newspaper told how they "soldiered on" despite not winning a game.

The players meet up every 10 years to play again, and this year they all turn 60.

Keith Missin, who played as a midfielder for Downham Feoffees Primary School half a century ago, still lives in the village and has organised the reunion matches.

He was one of the players selected by the headmaster, Tony Hurlin, for the under-10s side.

He still remembers the 1973 season, when the team failed to win any matches "but our hearts were in the right place".

He said the age of some of the 1973 squad was one of the problems: "There weren't enough people from our year and we had to have younger people, so we've got some babies playing [this year] who are only 57 or 58!"

Keith Missin with the newspaper article that made his team famous

He has fond memories of being named "Team of the Month" by the Daily Mirror in 1973.

"We got an England football shirt, and shorts and socks," he said. "We thought we were the bee's knees, and then some team in London saw that we were pretty useless and invited us down there.

"Then we got tickets to watch Arsenal play Man City at the Arsenal ground - it all came together for a few months. Us 10-year-old boys didn't really know what was happening and everybody wanted to play us."

The squad lined up again for the 2013 reunion match

The opposition in the reunion matches is always made up of children of the 1973 squad.

Mr Missin said: "We've asked the younger lads to please be careful with us, I've put a rule in that they're allowed to run for five seconds and walk for five seconds, but I don't think that will happen."

The 1973 squad has lost all of the reunion matches so far, and the 2023 match is likely to be the last, so the team is desperate for a victory this year.

The game takes place at 14:00 GMT at Little Downham Recreation Field.