CROOKLANDS Casuals' junior footballers reaped the rewards of a new venture from Onside Sports Coaching during an Easter holidays fun camp.

Coaches from the company spent four days on the green, green grass of Longlands Park working with the children in a fun environment.

The camp was the first time Onside have worked with one club to deliver a coaching platform in the school holidays, with plans in place to expand the project with other clubs this summer.

The five to 11-year-olds spent the four days working on their skills in a number of drills and games, overseen by Onside's Gavin Butler and Tom Heywood – the latter of whom plays for the Crooklands open-age team in the West Lancashire League.

The with juniors already knowing each other – all but a handful were from Cassies, with the others the siblings of club players – the Dalton venue was a happy place to be as they smiled and laughed their way through the coaching.

Butler was delighted with how the four days went, and said: “It was our first fundraiser with the clubs. We're trying to build a relationship between us as professional coaching company and grass-roots teams.

“Tom coaches the under-sevens up there and plays for the seniors, so it was our first port of call.

“It was really popular – we had between 35 and 40 kids most of the days, and it went really well.”

He added: “They all turned up and they all know each other, and that's great. They're also used to playing football – when we run some camps, some kids come at four or five, and they have never played before – so the quality was a lot better. Everybody is used to playing football, everybody loves football. It made the days really good for us, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.”

Funds raised by the camp will be split between Onside and Crooklands.