A football writer who covers amateur matches for the Oldham Chronicle has been awarded the John Tibbett Memorial Trophy for his services to the column during the past 21 years.

John Gilder, (43), started writing an amateur soccer column in 1982 which proved an instant hit with the players and readers.

John writes 36 weekly columns a year - throughout the football season - including a match-of-the-day feature.

He used to play for a local side and later became a referee in the Sunday league.

He said: "I used to read the Green Final and sometimes you would get a mention, something like that means a lot to amateur footballer.

"It generates chat and people will criticise, but it's generally been well-accepted."

When he came up with the idea for writing a Sunday league column John went to see the sports editor Donald Taylor, who asked for an idea of what he was going to write.

When John went back with his draft copy Donald was suitably impressed and set him to work on the first column - for the 1982-83 football season.

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