Sisters aged 98 and 102 become Man City's oldest mascots

Manchester City Football Club made a heart-warming gesture to two of their longest-serving fans on Saturday.

Along with the usual collection of young mascots, 102-year-old Vera Cohen and 98-year-old Olga Halon also emerged from the tunnel before kick-off.

To their delight, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola embraced the pair in the Etihad Stadium dugout before the 3-0 victory against Fulham.

Mrs Cohen, who has been a season ticket holder since 1930, said: "Pep said hello to me and I said thank you for all you've done for this team. Pep is amazing. What he's done to this team. There's something about him which brings the best out in the players. I hope he stays forever!”

The sisters were visited by Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany last year as part of the club's ‘We're Nothing Without You’ campaign.

The first team squad supported fans with a host of surprise visits at the end of the Premier League season, including Raheem Sterling trying his hand at knitting and Yaya Touré giving Shirley Leonard a 50th birthday to remember.

Mrs Cohen told Manchester Evening News at the time: "We got the shock of our lives... Vincent gave me a big kiss. He’s such a gentleman.”

Vera has been a regular at the club’s matches for more than 85 years and still goes to every home game with Olga, son Danny and son-in-law Roger.

City fans have been calling the sisters “fabulous” and “living legends” on the club’s Twitter page, with one user adding: “Talk about a loyal fan…inspirational in its purest form”.

Remarkably, Vera is not the oldest mascot English football has seen. In August last year, 105-year-old Bernard Jones led the Preston team out against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening weekend of the 2017-18 Championship season.