A HEADTEACHER has been awarded with a top football honour.

Angela Nicholls, from Seaford, was presented with the lifetime achievement award by Liverpool legend Ian Rush at the Welsh Community Football Awards in Wales.

She was given the award for her role as coach of Tenby AFC in Pembrokeshire, Wales, a position she has held for more than 36 seasons.

The honour was presented to her at Cardiff City football club’s stadium on Saturday night and Angela got to meet her hero, former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs.

Angela, who studied at Cardinal Newman in Hove, moved to Tenby in 1980 and juggles her coaching role with her headteacher job at St Teilo’s Catholic Primary.

She coaches six to 16-year-olds, and has produced Premier League pedigree.

Angela feels a sense of achievement in her role, saying: “Just seeing the enjoyment of the children, not necessarily winning matches, but when they improve, it’s great to see.

“It’s nice to see some of the boys playing senior football. I always look through their Twitter pages to see how they’re getting on – it’s just nice to see that they’re still involved in the game.”

Highlighting her lengthy spell at the club, Angela said she has coached two groups of players from six through to 16.

At the awards, she caught up with one of her former apprentices, Joe Allen, a senior Welsh international who plays for Premier League side Stoke City.

The central midfielder learnt his trade at Tenby before moving to Swansea, where his performance earned him a £15 million switch to Liverpool.

Stoke paid £13 million for his services in 2016.

Jo Craig, coach of Tenby’s under-ten side, paid tribute to his colleague.

He said: “I’ve learnt a lot of my coaching from Angela. She’s been a great asset to Tenby AFC. She’s a headteacher of a local school, which takes up lots of time, so I’m amazed that she can find time to run two or three different sides at the same time.

“It’s incredible – I struggle to run one. On behalf of Tenby AFC we’d like to thank Angela and congratulate her.

“She’s done a fantastic job for us and she really deserves it.”