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Last year the young villagers formed a new team and lost every match they played in at the Alcester Football tournament. Now, 12 months later, the same group of boys are ‘treble winners’.

Young footballers in a newly formed village team near Warwick are celebrating being champions of three tournaments just a year after they were beaten in every game on their debut in a competition.

Claverdon Under-8s were assembled last year by Andy Allsopp and Scott Whale who had volunteered to coach the team and get their FA badges to do so.

Soon after this, the team entered the Alcester Football Tournament and lost all of their group matches, scoring just one goal in the five games.

Claverdon Under-8s celebrate one of their three recent tournament wins. Picture supplied.

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Andy said: “We practiced every week, came together as 11 friends, who have now become inseparable, and worked really hard to to go back to the Alcester Football tournament and improve our record from the year before - even if we could get one win.

"Spirits were high, but the boys were very nervous.

"But we didn’t just win one game, we qualified from our group matches, beat local rivals Central Ajax in the semi-finals and won the final.

"What a story for a bunch of seven and eight year olds.

"But it doesn’t stop there We also entered two other regional tournaments and won those.”

"That’s a treble of trophies for a team who didn’t know each other and were beaten left, right and centre, turned it around and are now one of the most successful teams in the region, from the little village of Claverdon.”

Claverdon Under 8s: a true underdog story