Former Bradford City trainee Pat McGuire will lead the newly-formed Yorkshire international side out this afternoon its first ever game.

Maguire came through the junior ranks at Valley Parade but only made two substitute appearances for the first team before signing for Farsley Celtic.

Now with Thackley, he's one of three footballers from clubs in the Bradford district in the squad for the Yorkshire international football team’s first ever fixture.

Manager Ryan Farrell said: “He’s been at Thackley for fair few years and he’s an ex-pro with Bradford City. He’s a great character to have around and hopefully he can pass on some of his experience and knowledge to the younger lads, and I think he’ll be great leader.”

The recently founded Yorkshire International Football Association is a member of ConIFA, the federation for nations outside FIFA.

The county plays its inaugural international fixture today (Sunday January 28) in Wakefield against the national side of the Isle of Man, Ellan Vannin.

The squad’s two goalkeepers both also hail from the Bradford district, with Bradford Park Avenue’s Ed Hall and Brighouse Town’s George Clarke selected.

Farrell added: “We’ve only had one training session, I’ve got my own philosophy that the lads seem to be buying into and they want to play that style of football. I think the players we have will be able to play that style, so we want to play possession based football, controlling the games and playing on the front foot as much as possible.

“We’ve done a little bit of analysis on Ellan Vannin so we know what they’re about. They work hard, they’re powerful and very good on the counterattack, quite dangerous at set pieces. They’ve been established for a long time now and they’ll have some real quality in the squad.

“It’ll be a tough task come Sunday, but for us we’ve got nothing to lose and we’ll have a better idea of where we need to be at the end of the 90 minutes. It will be a good benchmark for us on where we need to be at and where we’re currently at with this squad.”

The squad is made up entirely of non-league players from around the county.

The game will kick-off at 3.30pm at Hemsworth Miners Welfare in Fitzwilliam, Wakefield. Tickets for the game are priced at £10 for adults and £5 for under 16s.

Yorkshire’s opponents finished sixth in last year’s ConIFA World Football Cup which was held in North Cyprus.