YOUNG footballers from Musselburgh who were left “distraught” by a hoax earlier this year had the time of their life as guests of Motherwell FC.

The cruel prank was turned around into a memorable trip to Fir Park where they enjoyed meeting players, taking on the role of team mascots, flag bearers and even stadium announcer.

Ten youngsters, aged nine, from Musselburgh Windsor’s 2008 squad were on the receiving end of the hoax after the club was contacted via email by someone called David Walls, claiming to be from Motherwell Community Football Club.

The Musselburgh club was asked if the team would like to take part in a festival to play against Motherwell, Celtic Boys Club, Hamilton, Ayr United and Scotland Boys Club.

The tournament was purportedly on April 23 at Ravenscraig Sports Complex.

When the team turned up, the place was awash with children playing four-a-sides and five-a-sides. As it got nearer 10am and nobody seemed to be making way for seven-a side-matches, enquiries were made and nobody had heard of David Walls.

Lead coach David Steel then checked his e-mail and saw a message saying the festival was cancelled due to a burst water main in the reception area but this wasn’t the case and it turned out a seven-a-side festival had never been arranged in the first place.

He said the children were distraught with a few reduced to tears.

The group was given a five-a-side pitch for nothing so an adult versus children match was enjoyed to “make the best of a bad situation”.

When contacted, Motherwell FC knew nothing about the bogus e-mail and had never heard of the sender, so decided to give the young Musselburgh players a VIP day out.

Mr Steel said: “Motherwell didn’t want the children to think everyone in football was bad. The club didn’t have to do what it did for us, so our big thanks to them. They deserve lots of credit.”

The entire squad of 32 children was invited to Fir Park to watch the recent Motherwell vs Hibernian FC match.

The Windsor players competed in matches against the Motherwell community teams in the morning and watched the big game in the afternoon.

They were served food in the Davie Cooper Suite where they got the chance to meet some of the Motherwell players.

They then took their seats in the stand as Matthew Murray-Smith got the chance of a lifetime to become stadium announcer to introduce Hibs.

Eleven of the children were Hibs mascots and everyone from the Musselburgh group were flag bearers.

Mr Steel said: “They hardly remember the hoax but will remember the day at Motherwell FC for the rest of their lives.”

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