Chatham Town under-10s returned from St George’s Park as ESF Grand Finale champions - beating around 650 other teams to the national title.

ESF run the UK’s biggest youth football festivals and Chatham’s youngsters showed what teamwork can achieve after beating all comers.

Team manager Chris Tolley said: “It was an amazing experience, it gave us goosebumps!

“One of the games we had beaten an academy side from London, who were deemed as the best there, and a Leicester City scout came over and congratulated us and took a few notes.

“We have got a team full of good players but this Global Academy team have very good individuals. We played as a team and beat them 3-0.

“They are unbelievable, they are not a team of individuals, they are an amazing passing team, it’s unbelievable the way they knock the ball around.

“They are like best friends and that is probably why they do so well. They fight for each other.

“From around 650 teams in our age group, to be the number one team is a massive achievement.”

The champions of champion final took place at St George’s Park - the FA’s national football centre. A league format saw four regional champions come together for the Grand Finale.

Chatham won all four of their games to top the group, conceding only one goal. They had also won all of their games at the regional event at the Butlin’s resort in Skegness.

The squad for the Butlin’s grand final was Preston Tolley, George Masterton, Calvin Igboma, Riley Osborne, Freddie Peters, Danny Almond, Oscar Hayward, Lincoln Surridge and Freddie Shuttle.

They’ve already signed up for next year’s event to try and retain their title while they will play on two fronts at under-11s, representing Chatham in the Maidstone Youth League on Sundays and for one season only playing for Ebbsfleet United on Saturdays in the Junior Premier League.

Tolley said: “We do win quite often and the team has been together for a couple of years. The last two seasons we’ve played in 10 tournaments.

“We just want to keep pushing them and pushing them but Chatham Town remains our priority.”