Fairytales do happen – and even in local football – or so it seems.
Take Royal Oak, close to folding and finished bottom of the West Cumberland Sunday League’s Division One.
They won two and drew two of their 18 matches and finished with a goal difference of minus 61.
In December they asked for two weeks grace to try and sign more players as they only had 11 each week and were getting hammered.
League secretary Neil McCrickard said: “This is a great story. They kept going, won a couple of matches but still finished bottom of the league.
“However they won through to the Tier Three League Cup final and beat Zebras 1-0 at the Fibrus Community Stadium.
“This was the third year in a row they have reached a final but had lost the previous two so nobody could deny them their triumph on this occasion.
“This is what these Tier Cups were designed for and they were bottom of the league in October and it looked as though they were basically finished.
“But it shows if you can hang in and keep going you can win the League Cup. Well done to them.”
Karl Lofthouse scored the only goal of a tight game and give the Royal Oak team and their followers something they won’t forget for a very long time.
