A Poppleton football team have marked the end of an era and the start of a new one.

After ten years together the players who last season played in Poppleton Juniors Under-17 team bowed out of junior football with an end-of-season match against Poppleton's Leeper Hare York and District League senior side.

Les Vaughan, the Under-17s' manager who started the ten years ago with the youngsters, said that one reason for the game was to introduce the youngsters to senior football.

This season the Under-17s finished runners-up in their division in British Sugar York and District Minor League, won the league sportsmanship award and were beaten finalists in the League Trophy and York FA Minor Senior Cup.

The match was also the launch of a special fund-raising campaign. The club need new land to cope with the number of teams they run. At present they have only two pitches at the Community Centre to accommodate the needs of two senior, two over-35, four junior and other teams, plus training sessions.

Poppleton have applied to City of York Council to buy or lease land at Millfield Lane and are planning events to raise funds to pay for using new land.