Wigan football team's marathon lockdown challenge for foodbanks

The idea came about after captain Carl Lownsbrough suggested on a player welfare call that they could do something to support local good causes.

Manager Dave Dempsey and his team then came up with the idea that if 25 players and coaches did 20km each per week for the six weeks of the latest lockdown, that would be 3,000km.

The club decided its marathon effort will support the foodbank at Ashton Churches Together and The Brick and has already passed its initial target of £1,000.

Dave said: “With times being the way they are foodbanks are trying to help people and we decided there’s nothing better we could do this for.

“As long as the lads are doing the work they’ve been asked to do it keeps them on track and it also gives the squad a goal to achieve, knowing when they do this the money raised is going to a really good cause.

“I rang the foodbank at Ashton and the secretary burst into tears when I told him what we were doing. He was absolutely made up. He said that at Christmastime they are overwhelmed with donations and fund-raisers but then in January they sort of get forgotten about.

“I worked out the 3,000km distance from how many lads were doing it and how much they should do a week and then I put into the computer how far 3,000km from Ashton was.

“My wife is an English teacher and she said to get some alliteration in there to make it punchier. Athens is about 3,100km away from Ashton so we’ve gone for that.”

Around £1,200 was put into the kitty during the first week of the challenge.

The fund-raisers are all recording their weekly exertions via Strava.

The footballers have been taking part in competitions to keep their training fun in recent weeks, with the squad being divided into four groups and each week’s performances being turned into scores.

Ashton Town AFC play in the North West Counties Football League and coronavirus has had a massive impact on its level of the sport’s pyramid.

Dave said: “It has been an absolute nightmare. I took over as manager 10 weeks ago and I’ve had one competitive game.

“We played Darwen the day after Boxing Day and got beat 2-0, but we’d had no preparation.

“It has been tough so things like this fund-raising are key because it is team building and gives us something to focus on.

“It’s also nice to help out as a club.”

Find out more about the fund-raiser or donate at www.gofundme.com/f/ashton-town-afc-lockdown-challenge-3000km

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