A VILLAGE junior football team will kick off its first season with some unusual backing - sponsorship from 1960s supergroup The Searchers.

Football coach Nick Brett, from Crowle, near Worcester, is forming an Under 8s five-a-side team this summer, which is due to join a local league in September.

And the side will proudly wear new strips emblazoned with The Searchers' name and group logo - a guitar - after guitarist John McNally agreed to the move.

The deal came about when Rob Skinner, a Crowle resident whose band supported The Searchers in 1998, arranged for the chart-topping act to play a series of fund-raising concerts in the village.

"I spoke to John McNally last week and he approved the idea," said Mr Skinner, who has lived in the village for 22 years.

"He is 64 but still likes to play five-a-side football when he can and he's a big Liverpool fan. He said he was 'over the moon' when I asked him."

Around £300 from the band's gig on Saturday, June 4 - The Searchers' fourth in the village - will be used to kit out the football team.

The strips are due to arrive at the end of the month and the group has agreed to meet up with the youngsters from the football team before they perform their concert.

"I don't think the young lads will know too much about the band but I guess their grandparents would!" added Mr Skinner.

The concerts are held in the village hall and all the money raised goes towards local organisations and events.

The Searchers had three UK number one hits in the 1960s with Sweets for My Sweet, Needles and Pins and Don't Throw Your Love Away.