THE Runcorn Linnets side, which as under 17s reached the final of last season's Warrington Premier Cup, have accepted an invitation to carry the flag for Runcorn & District Football Association in Cheshire County FA's County District U18s Competition this summer.

The en-bloc selection will see the Linnets test their mettle in a tournament,featuring the five other area representative sides, at the county's Moss Farm HQ in Northwich.

Runcorn & District have been grouped with Chester and Altrincham DFAs who they will meet on Saturdays, July 1st and July 8th, respectively. Both matches will be on a 3G pitch, kicking off at 11am.

The other qualifying group features Wirral, Mid-Cheshire and Crewe DFAs.

The winners of each section will contest the final on Saturday, July 15th.

This competition is for the county youth team management to have a look at players to represent the county at youth level in the forthcoming season.

Ciaran Clotworthy, junior head secretary at Runcorn Linnets, said: 'It is with great pleasure that we announce our whole U17s team have been selected to represent Runcorn District FA in the County Youth Cup Competition.

'This competition is open to all boys playing within the Runcorn District FA, so it is fantastic that the team as a whole have been chosen to represent our District FA.

'This is a huge honour for the boys and one that we hope as a Linnets family you will support them in.

'Lets get down there to support the lads and show how proud we are of our Linnet boys.'

Good luck lads!

Michael Ellison has added another date to Runcorn Linnets' pre-season warm-up schedule with a visit to Conwy Borough, who the Linnets visited around the same time last year, being announced.

The game will take place on Saturday, July 8th (ko 3pm) at the Y Morfa Stadium, Penmaen Road, Conwy LL32 8HA, and will be the first game in a busy pre-season for the Linnets, with home games against Witton Albion, Marine and Colne having already been arranged.

Linnets boss Ellison explained: "We were really impressed with the set-up and welcome at Conwy last pre-season, and were eager to visit again as part of preparations for our forthcoming Hallmark Security League campaign."

John did a 30-minute interview with Ste Bignall for his Linnets podcast, the pair being joined for the forthcoming broadcast by Ste's brother Mike Bignall (a Runcorn Linnets Trust Board member) and Linnets fan Stuart Allen, the historical society's blue plaque co-ordinator.

As well as the personalised Linnets non-playing third shirt, featuring the name of main club sponsor, Millbank and provided by Runcorn Linnets kit partner Macron, John was presented with some Runcorn Linnets souvenirs.

Runcorn Linnets players looked resplendent at the launch of their new official home kit for 2017-19.

The bespoke kit has been produced in association with the Linnets kit partners, Macron Store Cheshire.

You can order the new kit by visiting our Macron Club Shop.

There have been some changes to the dates of our intitial pre-season schedule with Colne now visiting the Millbank Linnets Stadium on Saturday 29th July, which means our visit to Middlewich Town will now take place on Saturday 22nd July. Keep checking our website and fixtures page for more pre-season warm up games to be announced soon.