A FORMER player and manager of Turton FC will attend the club’s 150th birthday event today on the back of success in a walking football tournament.

Peter Cooper played for the club, deemed the oldest in Lancashire, for several years in the late 1980s.

He joined them after spells with Bolton Lads Club, Leek Town, Rossendale and Darwen.

And after a playing spell the central midfielder went on to become their manager.

Peter, 66, will attend the club’s anniversary event at The Last Drop Village Hotel and Spa after victory in the walking football tournament in Majorca earlier in the month with Bolton Wanderers.

The group of over 60s overcame Feyenoord, Den Haag, Genk, Nottingham Forest before narrowly overcoming Boldmere St Michael’s by two goals to one in a nerve tingling final.

He got involved in walking football for the first time around four years ago on the recommendation of a former teammate.

But he was hit with a blow as he needed replacement knee surgery shortly after he first took up the form of the sport, in which you cannot run with or without the ball.

The Bolton man said: “I took to it straight way, then my knee went. I didn’t play for 12 months after that. I couldn’t wait to get back really.”

The team had been due to go to the tournament for the previous two years but this was cancelled due firstly due to a transport strike and then due to Covid.

But this year the team made it out there and won the tournament.

Mr Cooper said of the victory: “I put it down to a great team spirit, and we have three or four very, very mobile lads.

“They do help in the walking game, the rest of us weren’t as fit.”

He added of walking football: “I am going to keep going with it, it was a great experience.”

Peter enjoyed his time with Turton FC but says he was not strict enough as a manager.

He said: “Turton was a fantastic experience, there were a lot of ex non-league footballers there and it was very well run.

“I was not strict enough really when I was manager, I was a bit soft on the players, that was my management.”

People with pictures of anecdotes for Turton FCare asked to send them to enquiries@turtonfc150.com