A JUBILANT football team is planning a Wembley winners-style celebration for their championship victory ... in the Bolton Sunday League third division.
Darcy Lever FC will parade the championship trophy through the streets of Bolton - on an open top bus!
The two-hour parade will leave the Lever Bridge Inn, Radcliffe Road, at noon on Sunday and the players reckon that at least one or two fans are expected to cheer them along the route.
Striker Craig Maher, of Barnacre Avenue, Breightmet, is Darcy Lever's longest serving player, having turned out for the club throughout its eight-year history.
He said: "The team started as an excuse for a kickabout with a few pints afterwards.
"But we always promised that if we ever won the league we would tour the town in an open top bus. "Well, now we have won it. The top deck of the bus will be half-filled with players and their friends, the other half with the contents of the off-licence, and the trophy of course!
"They are a good set of lads and we are doing it for the crack. Most of the players live, work and play in Darcy Lever."
In preparation for the tour around Bolton, the bus will be decked out with banners, balloons and a whole range of decorations.
The bus will greet adoring fans on Radcliffe Road, Long Lane and Bury Road before setting off around the town.
Former bus driver Mark Boardman, who also used to be player-boss at Darcy Lever, organised the bus with Joe Waring, who works for GM Buses.
Last year Darcy Lever were runners up in the Third Division League Cup and results have been even better this time round.
In addition to the title they knocked a Premier Division side out of the Open Cup.
But the 'double' proved elusive and the team went out of the Third Division League Cup on penalties.
The team is a family affair, three of Craig's brothers play and his dad Des is a former manager and now helps out with the running of the club.
Craig, aged 27, quality manager at Bolton Bury Training and Enterprise Council, put the team's success down to fitness and the appointment of a new manager at the start of the campaign who won the league in his first ever season as a boss.
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