THERE were goals galore as sporty students tried to stay on the ball during a 24-hour five-a-side football game.

The freezing conditions may have meant that Grimsby Town had to call off their planned clash against York City this weekend, but it wasn't enough to deter pupils from Oasis Academy Immingham from their goal.

The marathon match, which was held at the school, was to raise money to pay for the school's football team to take part in a prestigious tournament in Wales later in the year.

The Welsh Super Cup, which is being held in Cardiff in July, brings together talented young footballers from all over the world, giving them the chance to showcase their skills in front of scouts from teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

It costs around £450 to send each youngster to the tournament and, with the full squad of soccer-mad students desperate to book their place on the coach, the academy has launched a fundraising drive to stump up the cash.

The first event in their campaign was a 24-hour small-sided tournament which began at 7pm on Friday evening and finished hundreds of goals and a few blisters later, on Saturday evening.

PE teacher and Healthy Schools co-ordinator Mark Morris, who arranged the gruelling fundraiser, said: "Every year we take a football team to compete in the Welsh Super Cup. It is a great experience for the lads but it is quite costly.

"It costs about £450 for each player and we have got 17 lads wanting to go, so it is quite a lot of money.

"So, every year we hold a series of fundraising events and the first was this 24-hour football match.

"The game has gone really well. We started at 7pm on Friday and didn't break until about 9am on Saturday when the lads stopped to have some breakfast.

"The standard has been surprisingly high considering the length of time that they have been playing; it has been a great effort, they have done so well. We started off with the intention of keeping the score but as the match wore on I think we lost count!"

Mr Morris added that the epic match had helped to raise around £2,500 for the trip.

He added: "It is a fantastic total to make from one event and we are really pleased.

"This is one of the first fundraisers that we've done but we're planning on doing a couple of discos and hoping to go to local supermarkets and do some bag packing.

"We've received some help from a couple of local businesses which have been great, but we do need all the help we can get."

Midfielder Joel Smith, 16, of Immingham, added: "It has been a good event and everyone has had a laugh.

"It started to get difficult about 3am – I think that is when it hit us and we all started to get tired.

"But the main thing is that we've raised some money for the trip to Wales. Hopefully we can raise enough to get us all there."

Can you help

Could you sponsor these students and help them reach their fundraising goal? If so, call Mr Morris on 01469 576599.