A YOUTH football club on Canvey played its first game at its new home ground after fears the club would have to fold from the league.

Mornington Boys football club was on the brink of having to let its 220-players from age four to 18-years-old find a new club after the lease for their previous home ground could not be renewed.

With help parents of the Cornelius Vermuyden School in Dinant Avenue, the club will now kick off the new season on the Canvey secondary school’s fields.

The new lease will keep the team at the school for the next five-years where the club hopes it can continue to improve on their first four-years of success.

Chairman of the club, Kevin Gray, 59, was afraid of the idea of telling all the boys and girls involved in the club as well as the coaching staff about the situation.

He said: “The eviction was served to us in December last year, we found ourselves with nowhere to go.

“The idea of turning around to those around 200 boys and girls and telling them, I was so afraid of doing that to the children.”

Mr Gray at 59 still helps the coaching staff at the club, training with his next crop of young stars coming out of the under-5 academy at Mornington.

He said it was ‘fundamentally important’ that the club remain.

Mr Gray was helped by parents whose children play for the club to encourage the school into agreeing to the move.

He said: “Fortunately one of our parents was on the governing body and asked if there was an option for us to play there, especially as a lot of our players are students who go to the school.

“There were quite a lot of hoops to jump through but it is all done now.

“We started to train there at the beginning on the summer and we have just played our first game.”

Mornington Boys hosted a game between its senior team and the club’s coaching staff in support of Cancer Research.

The game which welcomed the players to their new home raised £500 for the charity.

The first game was sadly not a classic, ending 6-1 to the senior side.