Ovation before take-off for Euro winners!

Sheffield FC’s proud players were given an ovation by fellow passengers when they boarded their flight home from Holland with the EVO-STIK League club’s latest trophy.

Two teams and officials from the world’s oldest football club were applauded on a KLM flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Manchester with the Pioneers Cup, won at a mini tournament staged in the Dutch town of Haarlem to celebrate the entry of Koninklijke HFC into Sheffield’s Club of Pioneers.

The initiative was launched in 2013 to unite the oldest football clubs of every country in the world under one banner and the first clubs from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Spain, Italy and Malta are already members of the elite group.

To mark the latest induction, Club took part in two competitions - the Bekker Jubileum (Jubilee Cup) and the 2014 Pioneers Cup - as guests of honour of their Dutch hosts Koninklijke HFC who are celebrating their 135th anniversary this season as the oldest club in the Netherlands.

The First Division South club's Pioneers side, a mixture of staff, fans, ex-players along with ex-professionals Marcus Brameld and Andrew Kiwomya, competed in a three team round-robin against Koninklijke HFC and Belgium’s oldest club, Royal Antwerp.

Club are defending champions and the first game eventually saw them run out as 2-1 winners after an entertaining battle, Chris Dolby scoring early in the second half and SFC Director of Football Paul ‘Buck’ Rogers grabbing a last second winner.

In the second game, Royal Antwerp faced the hosts and a comfortable 5-2 win for HFC winning meant Club only had to draw their last game to retain the trophy.

They won with ease, with the battle-scarred Andrew Kiwomya, Darryl Winter and Marcus Brameld on the score-sheet in a 4-0 victory. The final goal of the tournament coming from the appropriately named Lee Holland.

Pioneers skipper Winter is pictured with the tournament’s match officials, Koninklijke HFC captain Carlos Opoku and Bernt Schneiders, Mayor of Haarlem.