THE St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Sale, girls’ football team were runners-up in the English Schools Football Association national fnal.

More than 4,000 schools entered the competition at local level in September.

To get to the final, St Joseph's were crowned Trafford Champions, Greater Manchester Champions and North of England champions.

In the finals, at Aston Villa's training complex, St Joseph's competed against another school from the north and two teams from the Midlands, the south east and the south west.

The girls finished top of their group without losing a match and won the semi-final 5-0.

They narrowly lost the final 2-1 in a close game against a team they had already beaten earlier in the competition.