Houghton Kepier School Under-13s from Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland finished joint third in the Coca-Cola U13s National Schools Cup Final at Liverpool's Anfield home.

Houghton claimed their place in the third/fourth playoffs of the country's biggest 11-a-side schools' tournament for U13s boys and girls teams after beating strong competition from over 2,000 schools and 30,000 youngsters.

The youngsters were treated like top footballers and made use of the home and away dressing rooms where the likes of Michael Owen, David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer have done before them. After a team talk from their manager, Eric Ferguson the team ran down the tunnel to the pitch, touching the famous This Is Anfield sign for luck as they went.

Kepier lost their semi-final 4-2 to the eventual runners up Aylestone from Hereford in front of Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland at the Premiership club's multi-million pound Academy training ground on Saturday.

Then in a dramatic third/fourth place play off at Anfield on Sunday Houghton played Plymouth's Eggbuckland School. The score was tied 2-2 at full-time and it was decided that the teams should share third spot after their remarkable achievement in getting this far.

Delighted boss Ferguson was overjoyed that the boys got so far and he said: "The boys have done fantastically well to reach the National Finals of this tournament.

"We didn't play our best football on the day but the boys will cherish playing at Anfield and we have had a lot of fun on our amazing journey to Liverpool. The tournament organisers have done a great job!"

Houghton Kepier were presented with their runners-up medals by representatives from the English Schools Football Association (ESFA) and Coca-Cola in an FA Cup-style presentation on the pitch.

Liverpool goalkeeper Kirkland said: "This is a fantastic tournament and it's great to come down and watch the talent on display.

"Some of the players look pretty good - hopefully a few of them will be the international stars in the future."