A COUPLE of inventors have netted a winner after dreaming up a football board game in their spare time.

Jason Li, 21, and Paula Slinger, 28, formed Natchos Ltd to market their On The Ball game - where players create a team of players by successfully moving along a football pitch.

Following a toy convention in London last year Marks and Spencer bought a licence to manufacture and sell the game throughout the country.

It sold out of 10,000 of the £9.50 games in the run up to Christmas and Jason and Paula are now in talks over another 8,000.

Paula, a Manchester United supporter, is a business adviser for the Prince's Trust in Blackburn and Jason, an Everton fan, is a business adviser for the Enterprise Forum in Blackburn.

The couple, of Alexandra Road, Blackburn, worked on the game every night after work for six months.

The roll of the dice decides whether a player has to answer a question, complete a task or sit on the bench.

Jason said game was designed to make players laugh every three to five minutes - and designed tasks such as imitating a team mascot and drawing an impression of Wayne Rooney to win players.

If players rise to the challenges they can build a team of international greats including Diego Maradona and Pele or today's football stars such as Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The winner is the person who makes it past the group stages through the quarter finals then the semi's before reaching the final.

Jason said: "I used to play football and the idea is that the feelings you get when you play or watch a match are very similar to in the board game, except there's more fun involved and less competition.

"When a player ends up on the bench they have to roll a six to get back into the game.

"Waiting on the bench is frustrating in a real match and in our board game and players will desperately want to get back into the game to win."

The couple said they made a few thousand pounds out of the game but are now working on a new board game for budding entrepreneurs.