Continuing our series on local amateur football clubs, Nick Jackson finds out that Thornleigh are a club on the up...

IT says something about the family values of Lancashire Amateur League side, Thornleigh, that their four teams are thriving at a time when many local teams are finding young players difficult to hold on to.

It was about 50 years ago that boyhood pals Bernard Carr and Terry Conniffe founded the team which was named after the catholic school they had just left.

Sadly, Bernard, who went on to be highly successful in the bakery business (Carr's Pasties) and Terry both died in the 1990s, and are buried close to each other in Astley Bridge Cemetery - but they left a lasting legacy.

Terry's younger brother Chris, who remembers watching their early games as a boy, is still heavily involved with the club, as manager of the fourth team and co-ordinator of the other three.

Bolton solicitor Joe Egan is chairman and sponsor, but the pivotal cog in the Thornleigh wheel is secretary Susan Wilson, whose oranisational ability is key to the club's smooth running.

The first team is run by 37-year-old player-manager Martin Warburton, also a former pupil of the school as is the second-string manager Steve Glover, with Warren Sumner completing the equation with the third team.

Mr Warburton epitomises the close-knit ethos which surrounds the club.

He started playing open-age football at the age of 16 and he had brief spells at Tonge Ward Labour Club, Bromley Cross and Eagley, before turning out for Thornleigh almost 20 years ago.

"My best friend's dad Tony Yates used to play for the club and we used to go and watch him play, so turning out for Thornleigh seemed to be the right thing to do," he said.

"Now, I sometimes play as centre half, but I've got three children and it's a bit hard on them when I can't move on a Sunday after the game."

His first team are currently sixth-bottom of the LAL Division One and are perennial strugglers Last season they had problems for most of their campaign, but they finished the season with a flourish when they won 11 of their last 12 games to finish fourth in the table.

Mr Warburton joked: "We have been together as a side four or five years and we've got a bond, but right now we could do with taking that on to the pitch at the moment."

The link to what is now Thornleigh Salesian College remains, with training sessions taking place every Tuesday night at the school and matches taking place on the council-owned pitch off Church Road, Smithills, for the last 40 years.

There are good, if not luxurious, changing facilities at the site, but the after-match social gathering takes place at the nearby Ainsworth Arms at the top of Halliwell Road.

Thornleigh now has up to 90 players registered with the club, which is ample for the four teams and Mr Conniffe said there is a healthy number of youngsters coming through the ranks.

He said: "We have always tried to coax players from Thornleigh School to come and play for us, not always successfully, but funnily enough there has been an excess of lads wanting to play.

"We got two or three young ones last year, and when the season finished they asked me, when does the training start for the new season?' "So I told them we could keep the training going every Tuesday, and we went from 15 to 20 turning up to 20 to 30 turning up, which was a pleasant surprise.

"In an era when finding youngsters who are reliable and who will get involved in things like fund-raising is difficult, we are doing very well.

"I think that is a tribute to the family atmosphere we generate at the club, but also some of the personalities involved who are good at motivating the lads."