A successful football team which ripped up the tactical rulebook has reunited exactly four decades after their first game together.

Members of the Boca Juniors team, which played in the Accrington Combination League, gathered at the Peel Park Hotel to catch up and reminisce - exactly 40 years after kicking off their first ever game.

The team, who were inspired by the famous Argentine club of the same name, was founded by Tony Robinson and Dave Rodgers and renowned in the league for an ‘ultra defensive’ style of play.

The club started in the third division of the Accrington Combination but rapidly gained promotion to the top tier, before folding after six years.

Boca Juniors football team which played in the Accrington Combination League.

Geoff Cheesman, from Oswaldtwistle, who played in midfield for the team, said Tony and Dave were “the brains” behind the formation of the team.

He said: “They come up with the idea at university. We started off low down in the third division and peaked in the first division, winning a couple of things.

“It sort of ebbed away after that and lost a bit of interest and the results weren’t there. People said we’ve had our fun, we’ve enjoyed it, let’s call it a day. It was a relatively successful team in the short time we were there.

“It was ultra-defensive football that we played and we were quite well known for it in the league because it was a bit different at the time. It was more or less a 10-man defence and it upset a few teams along the way, but that was all part and parcel of what we aimed to do.”

Around 30 former players who played in the team over the six seasons gathered at the Peel Park Hotel on Turkey Street.

Boca Juniors football team which played in the Accrington Combination League. Reunion at the Peel Park Hotel to mark 40 years since their first game.

Geoff, 56, who scored in all six seasons for the Boca Juniors, said: “The reunion was purely a one-off. Tony and Dave did a presentation and gave out five or six awards for things like best post-match comment and best goal.

“It was good to see some of the old faces. There was one man who came from America and another man who they got up on FaceTime from Canada.

“There are four or five people who have regularly met up but for the majority this was the first time we’d seen them for years.

“It was very nice to get back with them again.”

Did you play in the Boca Juniors team or remember watching them play? Write to our letters page.