Stars align at Oxford City in aid of charity.

Thousands of fans raised thousands of pounds yesterday as Oxford City hosted the Three Horseshoes Debra Cup.

Debra helps those affected by Inherited EB, a group of rare and incredibly painful genetic skin conditions that cause the skin to blister and tear at the slightest touch.

With skin as fragile as a butterfly’s wings, EB is often referred to as ‘butterfly skin’. It is thought to affect at least 5,000 people in the UK and 500,000 worldwide. There are currently no cures for EB. 

Liverpool and Scotland Legend Graham Souness, is President of Debra and said: 

“It is such a devastating condition and as President I have got to know so many people who this affects. Events like this help raise the profile as well as raising much-needed funds”. 

Four teams took part in the tournament. The Three Horseshoes Legend team included players from the Witney areas plus ringer Southampton Legend Matt Le TIssier! 

In the opening game of the day despite adding former Ipswich and Oxford left back Gavin Johnson, they perhaps unsurprisingly, came up just shy against the Debra Legends side which included Dean Windass, and his son Jordan, Carlton Palmer, Carlos Edwards, Matt Taylor, as well as Fenners and Tubes from Soccer AM. 

The second semi-final saw Oxfordshire Legends including Ross Jenkins, Andy Ballard, Justin Merritt, three Odhiambo brothers and Pablo Heysham face the Oxford United Legends, who included Dean Saunders, Ryan Clarke, James Constable, Matt Green, Paul Byrne, Matty Taylor and Chrissy Allen with the U’s progressing to the final. 

Some controversial transfer activity involving Managers Ron Atkinson, Mark Wright, Denis Smith and Andy Slater saw Eddie Odhiambo and Heysham transferred to the U’s and Le Tissier move to the Debra side. In a thrilling game Le Tissier’s missed spot kick didn’t matter as his side still won the shoot-out to leave Palmer to lift the trophy.

However, the football was not the most important thing, as Souness told:

“It was fantastic to see so many former players back together and there was a competitive edge to all of the games, but the key thing was to raise funds for Debra and I want to thank Mike Dove and Tommy Higgs from the Three Horseshoes for everything they did in organising the game, Oxford City for hosting and all of the fans who came along. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we all did.” 

We’ll have the final total raised once everything is tallied up but you can still contribute. 

CLICK HERE to find out how tou can help DEBRA.