Young players from AFC Blackpool Juniors got a taste of the big time when they met with players from AFC Fylde’s first team during their week long Train Like A Pro experience.

Players were given the opportunity to talk with the first team players and have their football shirts signed thanks to the ground-breaking programme delivered by the AFC Fylde Community Foundation.

The week-long ‘Train Like a Pro’ programme is being delivered over 3 weeks at Kellemergh Park in partnership with Cuadrilla and Centrica, and has so far been a huge success for everybody involved.

Dozens of young players have been put through their paces in all aspects of the game including skills improvement sessions, warming up techniques, and the importance of nutrition and healthy eating in sport. But, the chance to meet the first team players from AFC Fylde at their training camp stood out and was voted the biggest hit by the children.

Director of the AFC Fylde Community Foundation, Tom Hutton said: “Children are inspired by professional sports people and look up to them. It was fantastic to see the look of pleasure as they got to meet their favourite player. The role of the Foundation Trust is to work with and support as many people as possible in the local community. We really appreciated the first team players giving so freely of their time to meet and talk with the children. It certainly looked like they enjoyed it as much as the kids. Who knows, some of the children who have enjoyed our ‘Train Like a Pro’ scheme might well end up as future stars of AFC Fylde!”

For more information please visit us at www.afcfyldefoundation.co.uk or keep up to date with all of our updates via our twitter @afcfct.