'We got a day off work thanks to Erling Haaland'

A go-karting trip is on the cards for staff at a landscaping business after footballer Erling Haaland responded to their online plea.

Staffordshire landscaper Shane Hassall made a video asking colleague Wade Taylor for a day off to go karting. He was told he could, if his video was viewed more than 100,000 times and got a comment from the Norwegian international player.

To their surprise their social media video got more than 16 million views in a couple of days but the pair had to wait to see if the Manchester City striker would respond.

Last week, a response came from Haaland, who commented on Thursday evening. His first message simply said: "Enjoy", with a second following shortly afterwards: "Your evening just became a bit better."

"We're just humble landscapers and we just decided to have a laugh," Taylor told BBC Radio Stoke.

The video was posted on Tuesday and, after attracting hundreds of thousands of likes, got the attention of Haaland two days later.

Taylor said he had a feeling the challenge would somehow work.

"To be honest with you, I don't know. I had no doubt that it was going to happen," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

"Once he'd made that commitment and we'd posted it, I just had this weird feeling that it was going to happen. We got 100,000 likes within the first four hours, which was crazy.

"People were commenting saying, 'We need this'. The community was building pretty quickly and the phone was buzzing."

Hassall said: "Because we're always pranking each other, I thought he was winding me up," he laughed.

The viral success led to TeamSport in Burslem offering the team a free go-karting session, allowing them to complete the challenge.

Despite the millions of views, Taylor said little had changed about their day-to-day lives.

He said: "We've arrived here today in a van. It's no joke that we're just working day in and day out. After this interview we're going to go and install a fence."

The company, Maple Landscapes, works across Staffordshire and Cheshire, and last year made a conscious decision to focus more heavily on social media as a marketing tool.

Since then, a series of prank-style videos have helped build a growing audience online.

Now, after their unexpected viral success, Taylor and Hassall are already plotting their next challenge.

The pair told the BBC they hope to raise money for BBC Children in Need by securing 500,000 likes on a future video and a comment from England captain, Harry Kane.

If they succeed, they have pledged to walk from Stoke-on-Trent to Salford Quays.

"We want to give something back," they said.

"What an opportunity to be on here and if we can do something for someone else, I think that'll be amazing."

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