Latest News - 26/07/2016

Galabank holds Scotland’s first amputee tournament

Annan Athletic have teamed up with Finding Your Feet to host Scoland’s first amputee football tournament.

On 30 July, teams from across the UK will meet for the Finding Your Feet Amputee Football Cup including Everton Amputees FC, Manchester City Amputees FC and Scotland’s only amputee football team, Partick Thistle Amputees, for the first tournament of its kind north of the Border.

Earlier this year, Brian Murray (46), a lower limb amputee from Dumfries and Galloway, organised an amputee football taster session at his home club, Annan Athletic, attracting players from all over Scotland and Cumbria. On seeing the appetite for the sport, Scottish amputee charity Finding Your Feet, for which Brian is an ambassador, stepped in to launch the sport north of the Border. The charity hooked up with SPL team Partick Thistle FC and has been holding fortnightly training sessions at the club’s Firhill complex.

Now Finding Your Feet will host its inaugural tournament back at Annan Athletic where it all started, inviting teams from the south to take on Scotland’s own Partick Thistle Amputees.

Brian lost his leg to cancer at just 10 years old. He recently took up football again but until Finding Your Feet stepped in, was forced to travel 150 miles to Merseyside from his home in Eastriggs to train with Everton Amputees FC. Brian now captains Partick Thistle Amputees and Finding Your Feet recently put him through his SFA Disability Coaching Training Course. As Brian’s home club, it was only fitting that the first cross border tournament be held at Annan Athletic.

Amputee Football has proved so successful in Scotland, with players traveling from as far afield as Dundee, Dumfries & Galloway and Edinburgh for training at Partick Thistle, that Finding Your Feet is expanding its programme to launch a team in Edinburgh in August in collaboration with Heart of Midlothian FC. The charity’s initiative is fully supported by the Scottish Football Association and Finding Your Feet will host the country’s inaugural Amputee Football Scottish Cup later this year, with Scotland East versus Scotland West.

Anyone interested in playing amputee football is being encouraged to attend the tournament at Annan on 30 July and is invited to attend the fortnightly training sessions at Firhill in Glasgow.