A church youth football academy has received a financial boost which is set to benefit many young aspiring football stars.

Message On The Ball (MOTB), a weekly football outreach project run by London Road Baptist Church, received £1000 of funding courtesy of Portsmouth based lighting company, Wirefield, and Councillors Sonia Barker and Peter Byatt, earlier this month, from their Suffolk County Council locality budget.

'We are so grateful to councillors Barker and Byatt for this generous gift towards our work at Message On The Ball and for coming along to see what we do.

'To have councillors who have not only supported us financially but also support our aim of promoting sport amongst young people in our local community and sharing the Christian faith with them, has been a real encouragement to the players and coaches,' said rev Emily Twigg, academy manager.

'It is really important to support sporting activities in Pakefield such as the Message On The Ball football activity which is such a good use of my Suffolk County Council Locality Budget,' added Cllr Barker. '

Philip Wilcox from Wirefield, also visited MOTB to see the players and coaches in their new kit, which the company contributed £400 towards, he said: 'It's fantastic to support the MOTB team and it was clear to see how much the kit meant to both players and support team. I'm sure they will go from strength to strength over the coming years.'

Funds have also been put towards the cost of pitch hire for the academy which runs every Thursday beween 7:30-8:30pm at Kirkley and Pakefield Football Club.

For more information contact Emily Twigg on 01502 514091.