A NORTH-EAST pub football team is minutes away from being one of the last teams in the country to play on the hallowed turf at Wembley.

At the weekend, regulars at the Owington Farm, in Longfellow Road, Billingham, won through to the finals of a national quiz competition involving more than 900 Bass pubs nationawide.

Now they face their stiffest test yet - a penalty shoot-out in front of 20,000 fans during half time at the West Brom v Blackburn Division One football match on Saturday September 30.

If they win that, they will take part in the Bass Leisure Retail cup final, on October 22 - the day before Wembley is bulldozed to make way for a larger stadium.

Manager Derek Bramley said: "It was nail-biting stuff as we battled through five rounds of questions, but my team played a blinder.

"Now we've got to start practising the penalties and show Gareth Southgate and co just how it's done.

"It'll be a great day out at West Brom and I'm confident we can go all the way to Wembley and make footballing history.