SOME of the best young players around descended on Wanderers’ Macron Stadium for one of the highlights of the junior football calendar.

The Bolton, Bury and District Football League’s finals weekend saw 20 trophies contested across three venues, many of which were re-scheduled when their original venue at Manchester City’s Etihad campus became unavailable.

Heightened security measures put in place after the terror attack in Manchester made it impratical to use the Sky Blues’ pitch, and the matches planned for there took place at Wanderers’ academy in Lostock and Horwich St Marys’ ground, Scholes Bank.

The league, currently in a three-year partnership with Wanderers, offer age-group footballers the chance to play their cup finals at the Macron or the Whites’ training ground.

On the field Hindley Green collected the under-sevens’ cup with a penalty shoot-out win against Bridgewater.

In an all-Tika Taka u8 final the Fantasticos beat Dortmund, but the club’s u9s lost out to Hindsford in their final, while Hindley Green took the u10s trophy back to Wigan.

Two u12s finals resulted in wins for Walshaw, who beat Woodbank 3-1, and Farnworth, 2-1 winners against Brandlesholme.

Bolton Indians Sports Club overcame Winstanley 4-3 in the first u13s final, while the weekend’s most emphatic winners were Atherton’s u13s, with a 7-0 victory over Standish.

Walshaw and Bury Juniors were the two winning teams in the u14s finals and Cherrybrook and Atherton were the victorious u15s sides, the former beating Tottington 4-0 and the latter 1-0 winners against Eagley.

Deerfold beat Beechfield United 3-2 in the first u16s match and Winstanley were 3-1 winners when they faced De La Salle in the other u16s final.

Westbury overcame Woodbank in an u17s final and the other match – the highest-scoring game over the two days – was an all-Pennington affair, in which the Lions beat the Predators 6-4.

Littleborough collected the u18s cup after beating Unsworth 3-1 and Horwich St Marys were 4-2 winners against Hindley.

Victories for local teams in the two u21s games rounded off a successful weekend for all involved with Atherton LR 1-0 winners against Whelley, and Horwich RMI beating Moston Juniors 5-4.

League chairman Gary Russell said: “A huge thank-you to everyone for ensuring a successful cup finals weekend across three fantastic venues.

“The commitment from all our volunteers was something we can all be proud of, as well as the great football, refereeing, coaching, support and organisation.

“My thanks go to our league secretary Chris Rees, Brian Morris from Bolton Wanderers and Lesley Allon of Horwich St Mary’s.

“Special thanks also go to the committee members who were present across the whole weekend. They were: Russell Walmsley, Stuart McNair, Bernice McNair, Marcus Howarth, Tony Berry, Katrina Mills, Kath McGreavy, Janet Cormican and Michael Worthington.

They all worked together to deliver a fantastic experience for the league members.”