DEAN Lord gave a captain's performance when he grabbed the only goal of the game to lead St Anne's Primary School to victory in the final of the annual Jim Hayhurst Trophy.

And beaten finalists Sacred Heart must have been sick of the sight on the eventual winners having lost by the same scoreline in the mini league section earlier in the day in the Blackburn primary school five-a-side finals.

Held at Darwen Leisure Centre, the tournament brought together the eight best schools in the town after they were whittled down from 28 from four qualifying rounds held at Our Lady and St John's and St Bede's primary schools over four nights in Janaury.

Two teams from each round made it through to the grand finals and competed in two leagues of four.

And with defending champions Lower Darwen primary school knocked out in the qualifying round there was always going to be a new name on the trophy this year.

St Anne's qualified from the group unbeaten with two wins and a draw alongside Sacred Heart while St Thomas and Fenniscowles were the two teams to make it through to the semi finals from the second league.

In the first semi final St Anne's ran out 2-0 winners against a plucky St Thomas side while Sacred Heart beat Fenniscowles by the same scoreline in the second match.

And in the final it was another tight affair between the two teams and it is took a strike from captain marvel Lord to seperate them.

The remaining four schools that took part were Lammack, St Gabriels, Holy Souls and St Albans.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.