Amateurs set off for Italian job

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An amateur football club which won the first World Cup is setting off for Italy ahead off a centenary celebration game against Juventus on Saturday.

County Durham team West Auckland Town lifted the cup - then the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy - in Turin in 1909.

The club successfully defended the title two years later with a famous 6-1 victory over Juventus.

The squad is travelling to Turin by coach with the aid of a £10,000 Football Association donation.

Juventus 'worried'

Stuart Alderson, general manager of the Northern League club, said: "It is brilliant for my lads, they will never get anything again like this in their lives.

"We have been training for six weeks so we are very fit, so you never know what will happen.

"We have never looked at Juventus, I think they are more worried about us."

The Italian side are expected to field an under-19 side.

In 1909, Sir Thomas Lipton, a millionaire philanthropist, commissioned the trophy for world competition, which featured sides from the host country as well as Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain.

The West Auckland team, which was made up of mainly local coal miners, beat Stuttgart of Germany in the opening round and went on to beat Winterthur of Switzerland 2-0 in the inaugural final.