MORE than 500 people paid a fitting football tribute to car crash victim Callum MacKinnon.

The 18-year-old’s friends and family watched as the footballer’s two teams – Witney United under-18s and Oxford and Cherwell Valley College (OCVC) – took to the field in his memory on Thursday evening.

Mr MacKinnon was the back-seat passenger of a Citroën C3 when it hit a tree along the B4020 Shilton Road, between Burford and Carterton, at about 5.30pm on Tuesday, September 7.

The car was travelling towards Carterton.

His 16-year-old brother Elliott, wearing his boots, played for Witney in the first half and swapped teams after the break of the match at the Downs Road ground.

Dad Cameron MacKinnon also played for Witney, helping the club win 4-2.

Darren Teggart, Witney United FC manager, said: “It was brilliant. It was more celebratory as most people had grieved the day before at the funeral and this was a way to go out smiling – it was the way he would have liked it.

“We had to delay the kick-off by 15 minutes for people to get in as they were queuing around the corner.

“The amount of people that turned up all knew Callum and it was just in honour of a great lad with a great character.”

A minute’s applause was held for Callum, who would have turned 19 yesterday.

Players wore black arm bands, as a mark of respect, and Mr MacKinnon snr spoke after the match to encourage people to make it a regular occurrence.

A plaque has been created in memory of the footballer, who planned to coach the sport in America next year.

Mr Teggart said: “The plaque will be kept at the club and the winner will be put on it.

“Callum never really took things too seriously, I remember he turned up for the youth team and I said, ‘You won’t be playing’, and before the words were out of my mouth, he said, ‘Is there going to be food after the match?’.”

Former Carterton Community College pupil Mr MacKinnon was studying for a diploma in sport at OCVC, and worked at the Burford Garden Company. He had recently returned to Carterton Community College to help with PE lessons.

Mr MacKinnon had taken part in his first match with Cirencester Town development side on Saturday, September 4.

He was due to train with Cirencester Town the day he died, and assistant coach Andy James said that the young footballer had everything going for him.