Some very special people............

That's how the 1066 Specials do it and on Saturday they had plenty to celebrate, from individual progress through to the continuing development of the team.

The special needs football team has come a long way since its beginning in 2003 and this was evident at the fourth annual meeting and presentation ceremony at Bexhill College Sports Hall following coaching sessions in the morning.

The club has been awarded charitable status, which will help with profile and fundraising efforts, and has also earned Football Association Charter Standard which is a confirmation of its "best practice".

Another major step has been the club's decision to aim at building a

1066 Specials sports centre, a project which will cost millions but begins with the need to find the right venue. An appeal was made to Rother representatives Cllr Dierdre Williams and the Town Mayor Cllr Eric Armstrong to give council help in making land available.

An enthusiastic crowd applauded the youngsters who have played their part in the team's success over the past year, and showed appreciation of the coaching team led by Jonathan Haddock - Ben Elphick, who won the volunteer of the year award, plus George Holmes, Colin Taylor, Sophie Rost, and Stephen Wilson.

Team member Andrew Harvais received warm support when he presented a cheque to the club for money he raised by running the Hastings half-marathon, while more funds came from the Rotary Club of Bexhill with chairman Ray Dixon's cheque for 1,000. Further donations came from the Bexhill Observer Achievers' Awards, and from Bryan and Jan Wyatt who asked friends and family for money instead of birthday gifts to be given to the 1066 Specials.

Fixture secretary Angie Costello received a bouquet of flowers following her decision to stand down from the post.

She was one of the first parents associated with the group, having brought her then 11 year old son Nicholas along - other original team members were Lewis and Danielle.

Her husband Mike had no initial interest in football, but himself slowly became involved and took over as chairman last year when founder Harold Lawrence retired from the position to become club secretary and spokesman.

After the presentation ceremony, Mike said: "The only thing I can say is that every year the club has progressed and got stronger, and the people supporting it have been better and stronger."

He admitted he had been "cajoled" into the task of becoming chairman, and said: "This year has proved to me how much I want to do it. I think we are going from strength to strength."

He told the Observer about future plans for the team: "We are now bringing in more parents. We really want to hand the club over to parents of players, to get them more involved. It is their club, and that is the only way to look at it.

"We want to build a disability sports centre which will not only be used for football but all disability sports. The first thing we need is a piece of land, and then we will take it from there. Now we have got charitable status, and we have also been awarded F.A. charter standard which is given out to very few by the Football Association. We will keep it for three years and then we will have to reapply, but this means we are doing the job right, with the proper coaching, proper facilities for players, and all the things that are needed to make a proper football team. It is only awarded if you do things right."

Founder Harold Lawrence believes a new sports centre would be "important" for the club.

He said: "It is important for these children, or young people, to have a centre to which they can belong.

"It could be extended to all sports, not just football, and could be a facility that might be staffed, with supervision, by people with disabilities. Some of these youngsters here could easily go on to take their place on the staff of a centre like that. It could be rented out to able-bodied organisations as well as disabled.

"We had a group of youngsters when we started - some of these now are actually coming in coaching, and that is a big thing ... kids who could hardly kick the football when they first came along are now coaching the other players."