At Saturday's match v Torquay, Terry Day from the New Football Pools presented a cheque for £60,000 to Football in the Community Trust to assist in developing the ability counts project with many activities planned round the local community.

 The New Football Pools Company has invested over £1.1billion into football and other good causes throughout its history, with £530 million going specifically into British Football mainly investing in Stadiums but now is now heavily focusing on community programmes and the many social aspects in and around football.

The Trust has been delivering football coaching sessions for a number of years as part of community activities on a very limited budget. This funding will help to develop our project with many activities planned for the next few years round the local community.

Siobhan McElhinney, Rochdale AFC Football in the Community Trust Disability Officer, with dedicated staff will now be able to deliver football to young and older people with disabilities from a variety of settings:

* Schools-a series of in term and after school coaching for pupils on the SEN register in Schools
* Community-weekly club coaching sessions at the Club's 5-a-side Complex and Soccer Factory
* Greater Manchester Ability Counts-monthly league fixtures for various teams
* Engage volunteers on educational courses to enable them to assist Community Staff
* Provide exits routes for those that want to play football creating links with grassroots clubs

The project will specifically target people with a range of disabilities including learning difficulties, physical/sensory impairments, emotional and behavioral, and those with long term illnesses and conditions. In short-any person that is unable to access mainstream football and training opportunities.

This season, teams have been entered in the Greater Manchester Ability Counts League for the open age/under 16's/under 14's girls/under 12's mixed