Great football, great atmosphere!

The feverish build up to the great match resulted in a large crowd turning out on a glorious sunny day for the first ever match between Audlem FC and Audlem Ladies FC yesterday morning.

Now, in these politically correct days we will have to be very careful to avoid chauvanistic reporting so you have to take this comment the way it's meant – the Ladies team looked really fit.

Clearly the result of weeks of intensive training, the Ladies moved the ball around to an impressive degree and fought extremely hard against the physically stronger men's team despite going behind to early goals.

We won't indulge today in a blow by blow account of the encounter as the real winners were all that turned out to play, officiate and spectate and, of course, the North West Air Ambulance Service who are to be the recipients of the charitable donations.

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we will be bringing you a pitch-side view of the game from our youngest ever AudlemOnline correspondent. The webteam have seen his reporting on Audlem St James' school matches and think you will love his critique of the action.

Our thanks to photographers Frank Morris, Phil Baker and Alvar Jones who were out recording a great match for all to enjoy.

As you can see, and you will need to click on the photos to enlarge them and see them in the correct dimensions (particularly the 'teams' photo), the tackles were sliding with determination and the ladies were not afraid to plead for a red card when only a yellow was shown for an infringement. We are sure the language was suitably restrained given the occasion!

The photos can be enlarged even more by clicking on the magnifying glass to the top left of the photos. Press 'Escape' afterwards as the photos will fill your screen.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.