Brighton and Hove Albion have hailed their latest schools' tournament for children with learning and behavioural difficulties as a success.

Fourteen schools from Sussex contested the six-a-side competition at The Triangle sports centre in Burgess Hill on Monday and the standard of football was high.

The teams were divided into two leagues named after Albion players Bobby Zamora and Kerry Mayo.

Uplands school in Brighton won the league named after Brighton's star striker while Northease won the Kerry Mayo league. Uplands beat Herons Dale 3-1 in the final while Northease A edged out their B team.

Organiser Teresa Sanders said: " It went really, really well. The children are amazing to work with and everyone enjoyed themselves. We usually only give away one fair play award but on this occasion we felt two teams deserved it.

"Farney Close earned one because they worked really hard all day. They lost on penalties to Northease in the final but their attitude was brilliant and they went up and congratulated the team immediately. It was amazing considering their age.

"Newick House also got a fair play award because they had a lot of youngsters in their team and they coped well. All the teams could have won a fair play award though."

Albion gave away 15 fair play awards to individuals such as Paul Coyle (Herons Dale), Daniel Stapleton (Uplands), Jason Cooper, Jamie Dryland (Newick) and Chris Kent (Sussex Downs College).

Phil Poulton coaches the Northease boys.

He said: "We have got about 25 boys in the senior school and about a dozen of them are mad on football.

"We play a few mainstream schools regularly to keep the players sharp."

Nozad Nawras, who teaches at Uplands, was delighted with his squad who won six and drew one of their matches.

He said: "It was brilliant. I've been teaching here two years and that was my best day. The team are all Brighton fans and they love getting involved with the club."

Newick House teacher Alan Robinson said: "We were very big underdogs at the start but we won our first game 6-0 and then beat St. Mary's 3-2. We lost 9-0 to Herons Dale which was a shock. The team coped well with the defeat and we are proud of them all."

Angie Bainbridge took charge of the Farney Close boys. She said: "As a school with special needs we get so few chances to take the kids. I always take the teams whenever Brighton organise anything."