DES Williams’s 40 years’ service to schools’ football has been recognised with a special award.

The 65-year-old retired teacher from King Alfred’s Community & Sports College, Wantage, received an engraved glassware award from the English Schools’ Football Association.

Founder of the Vale of White Horse Schools FA, he was presented with the award by England 1966 World Cup hero George Cohen at a luncheon at the ESFA Under 12 Danone Nations Schools’ Cup final at Fulham’s Craven Cottage.

He was joined there by ESFA chairman Mike Coyne and chief executive John Read and Newbury’s Doug Cook, who received a similar award for his 50 years’ service.

“We had a wonderful meal and it was a great day out,” said Williams, who lives in Wantage.

“It is just nice to know people recognise what I have done helping youngsters locally.

“It is about giving the boys the best opportunity to play football at a decent level.”

A former King Alfred’s pupil, Williams went to London University before spending a year teaching in Egham.

He returned to the Wantage school in 1970 and spent the rest of his teaching career there until retiring eight years ago.

With his passion for football, Williams, who is also secretary of Letcombe FC, began running what was then the North Berks Schools FA.

But when the county boundaries were changed three years later, that association ceased to exist and King Alfred’s became affiliated to the South Oxfordshire Schools FA.

In 1976 Williams founded the Vale of White Horse Schools FA and has been running the association ever since as secretary, treasurer and manager.

Schoolboy football’s most prestigious prize – the ESFA Inter-Association Under 15 Trophy – has eluded him, but he has enjoyed plenty of other success.

“We have won various cups, but the best we have ever done in the trophy was the last eight when we were beaten by Liverpool, who went on to win it, in 1992,” he said.

“We have done ever so well in the Wright Cup, winning it four times in the last seven years.”

Williams has also been chairman of Oxfordshire Schools FA for around 20 years, and has managed county teams who finished national runners-up on three occasions.

His under 16 teams lost 1-0 to Northumberland at Oxford United’s Manor Ground and by the same score to Merseyside at Derby County’s Baseball Ground, before the under 14s were pipped 4-3 on penalties by Surrey at Brentford this year.

Bolton’s Matty Taylor and Stoke City’s Dean Whitehead, along with Howard Forinton and brothers Simon and Ross Weatherstone, played under Williams’s management before going on to careers in the professional game. “The icing on the cake is those that go on to be famous, but it is not about that,” he added. “It is about those that play for the Vale and the county and it is nice that people recognise that.”