SPORTS mad youngsters at Fairfield Farm College in Dilton Marsh took the first steps on what they hope will be the road to success on the football pitch on Friday, with the launch of a coaching scheme which will see youngsters from Lavington School, near Devizes, working to boost their sporting skills.

The college, which provides education and opportunities for youngsters with learning disabilities, has joined forces with the mainstream school thanks to a Sky Sports-backed Living for Sport project, supported by the Youth Sport Trust.

Four pupils from Lavington School, all chosen for their footballing skills and ability to relate to the Fairfield students, have been chosen to be football coaches - as well as visiting Dilton Marsh regularly over the next few months they are also coaching a team of youngsters from their own school, drawn from the pupils who may themselves have special educational needs or who rarely take part in school clubs and activities.

"The coaches are all lovely. The idea is for the coaches to visit us once a month for a few months. We will then have home & away fixtures against the Lavington squad.

"It's going to be great and hopefully the start of inter school/college fixtures," explained Fairfield's marketing manager Helen Beer.

On Friday Fairfield College students Mitch, Charlie, Danielle, Zach, Sam, Jack, Jordon and Callum met their new coaches and were also inspired by a visit from Olympian Heather Fell, a silver medallist in the women's modern pentathalon in Beijing, who works with the Sky Sports scheme to help promote the value for sport for everyone.

As well as talking to the students about the scheme and nurturing their sporting ambitions, Heather joined the Lavington coaches and the squad on the college's multi-use games area for a football training session.