The Latics-backed West Oldham Junior School league came to a close last Thursday (May 8), as eight teams from years five and six battled it out for the title.

Athletic's Welsh international Neal Eardley kicked off the tournament - the first structured league of its type in the West Oldham area - in February and the youngsters have since enjoyed competing against each other on the football pitch.

Eight schools have been participating, namely Alexandra Park; Coppice; Horton Mill; St Hilda's; Westwood; St Thomas Werneth; St Hughes and Greenhill.

Greenhill eventually took the honours, pipping Coppice to the title by just a single point.  Both teams will now enter into a semi-final and final against the top two sides from a similar league run in the Chadderton area.

The League was established through a partnership between Oldham Athletic Community Trust, Oldham Community Leisure Limited, First Choice Homes, Manchester Methodist Housing Associaton, Contour Homes, and Greenhill School.

All parties hold high hopes that a successful league of this type can be repeated in the future.

Oldham Athletic Community Trust's Cohesion Officer, James Mwale, said:

"It has been great to see the commitment from all parties involved to ensure that the players could participate in a structured league and enjoy there football whilst meeting other's from different schools.

"In the future we can now build on the success of this league to help bring young people from different schools together."

Shanine Meadowcroft, Community Development Officer at Contour Homes, added: "This is an excellent example of community cohesion with young people from the different areas and schools involved.

 It has been a pleasure to be involved in such a worthwhile project and we look forward to working with Oldham Athletic again in the future. "

Sayful Alam, Equalities & Community Cohesion Officer at First Choice Homes, said:

"This is a partnership work to deliver a project that meets the needs of the community living in West Oldham.

"We at FCHO are not just about providing bricks and mortar - one of our missions is to work with the community to deliver cohesive services."