FRIENDS and former teammates renewed acquaintances at Rossendale Amateurs’ open day at Marl Pits.

The club was celebrating 70 years of football and had organised the open day to coincide with a vital game against Old Mancunians.

Unfortunately the match was called off because of the poor state of the pitch.

But that did not prevent many of the club’s former stalwarts turning up to ‘chew the fat’ and recall how it used to be in their day.

Amateurs club manager Mike Gregson said: ‘It went really well. Unfortunately we lost the game but quite a lot of people came for the reunion.

‘We had players there from teams in the 50s and 60s and there was more than 100 people over the day. Everybody from all ages had some old friends turn up and our president Norman Slater had about five or six from his era.

‘The day went off really well and we are all looking forward to the next one.’