THERE’S a side that’s played in Witton Albion’s colours for the past 10 years that you probably didn’t know existed.

With a pro-Everton scout at their helm, they love winning, hate losing and come from all over the county to pull on the distinctive red and white stripes of the Northwich club.

This is a group that Dave Lockett has assembled, a pan-disability football team.

It started around a decade ago when Lockett, then working part-time for the Football Association, was tasked with putting together a disability team to mirror the one at national level.

“England have a range of different teams – partially sighted, deaf – which have been going for many years now,” he said.

“The FA try to filter that down to grassroots level, and that’s where I got involved with pan-disability football.

“I started it up, with the FA bankrolling me to get it off the ground.”

Fast forward to today, and Albion have two teams – one at under 12s and the other under 16s, although the FA are flexible with boundaries between age groups.

In fact Lockett is on the hunt for new players, because he has only three that currently meet the criteria to play in the younger bracket.

His squad travels a long way to train with their teammates every Monday night at Moss Farm.

“We’ve been running for a while but still want to grow,” he added.

“The boys come from far and wide, from all over the place.

“It’s all a bit loose though, the FA don’t mind if we have a few players playing up or down.

“There are teams across Cheshire, in Stockport and Crewe for example, but in mid-Cheshire there is only Witton Albion.

“It’s been maintained primarily by me as football is a sport and hobby I love, but you can’t just grab special needs players all over the place – that’s the biggest challenge.”

He works hard to instil the key values of any team sport into his players.

But when they visit Wilmslow Leisure Centre every other month to compete in the FA’s Ability Counts seven-a-side tournaments, you can bet Witton want to win.

“These kids have special needs, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get excited and enjoy competing,” he added.

“It’s not all about finishing first, but they know the values of winning and losing and of course, if they get battered every game they will feel it too.”

Now, thanks to sponsorship from Compass Fostering, they can win, lose or draw in a new kit, a link created through a Compass foster carer whose child plays in the squad, something Lockett is grateful for.

Bernie Gibson, Compass' managing director, said: “The Witton Albion Pan-Disability football team enables children with a range of challenges to develop new skills and build confidence through football.

“The dedication and commitment of the coaches and staff is inspirational and makes such a difference to those children, both in their day-to-day lives now and in terms of their future wellbeing.

“Compass Fostering is delighted to be able to sponsor them.

“There is a natural parallel with our foster carers, who make a difference to children’s lives every day.”

And they have a new tournament to look forward to this summer at Wincham Park, home of Witton Albion’s first team.

“We’ll play a Cheshire disability tournament at Witton Albion when the season is over in May,” said Lockett.

As for support from the club, Lockett says it is growing.

“Hopefully this tournament will help,” he continued.

“They want to be a community club as well, so this will pamper to that and support that.”

To find out more about the team, e-mail Dave at dave.lockett@bt.com