Local Gooners fans step onto the hallowed turf

That’s because they were living every Gunners fan's dream - playing a match on the hallowed turf at the Emirates Stadium.

Eleven members of the supporters club travelled to Arsenal’s ground in Islington in London with eight of the ‘squad’ taking part in the tournament.

Club secretary, Michael O’Kane, explained: “Arsenal hold an annual tournament between all of their supporters clubs. We were sent an email asking us if we would like to enter, we accepted and three weeks later we were told we were on our way to the Emirates.

“It was a great day out, the weather really made it. The temperature was over 100 degrees Farenheit.”

It wasn’t the first time that the club had travelled to the famous stadium to play in the supporters tournament - they made their last appearance two years ago.

And thanks to that bit of experience they knew that they needed to bring a decent squad over with them.

“We got our members together and asked them who would like to go, although we tried to get as many footballers out of that bunch as we could,” Michael added.

“It was a very well run tournament; there were eight groups of four teams and the winners of each group went through to the quarter finals.

“We were paired up with the Manchester B team, who we beat 3-1; then we beat North Wiltshire 4-0 but we lost 1-0 to the Japan Arsenal Supporters, meaning they went through because they had won all their games. It ended up that we finished second in the group which is an improvement on last time!

“After the tournament we got to go up into what they call the Club Level of the stadium where we were able to get some free food and drink, plus we got to meet Martin Keown and Ray Parlour which was the icing on the cake.”

The club will be holding their AGM in the Detroit tomorrow night (Wednesday). Club membership is 20 and meetings are held once a month. For more information contact the club via their facebook page (search for Banbridge Arsenal) or email [email protected]