It was lovely to welcome Brookvale Young Boys FC from the village where I grew up in county Armagh to St Helens borough, where they enjoyed a series of games with one our fantastic local youth football teams Rainford Rangers.\nBrookvale YBFC have visited Merseyside several times over the past 20+ years and last year Rainford Rangers visited Ireland. It was a pleasure to see two good games, both keenly contested, and I was delighted to present the ‘player of the match’ awards.\nI am proud of this strong and special connection between these two clubs. My thanks to Paul Duffy and everyone at Rainford Rangers for their fantastic hospitality ‰лв which was a credit to the village and our whole borough ‰лв and to Brian Sloan and everyone at Brookvale YBFC who were great ambassadors for their club and community.