Melksham Town Youth visit Swindon Town

On Saturday 19th January a group from Melksham Town Youth went to see Swindon Town vs. Nottingham Forest. When we arrived at the County Ground we all got together in the parking lot, most of us went and had a browse around the shop. When every body was out of the shop they took us into the ground.

We sat down and the Liaison Officer told us we were going to have a tour of the ground. He also told us he would be taking the under 9’s & 10’s on the tour with him. I went with this group. The first stop was the Infirmary. We found out that a Physiotherapist works here seven days a week helping to keep all the players fit to play as soon as possible after being injured. One of the tools he uses is a special heater that helps heal bruises under the skin. This must always be used under supervision. The Liaison Officer told us about one boy from Swindon Town who used the heater without asking and didn’t realise he needed to apply oil to his skin, he scolded his leg really badly and had to go to casualty.  

The next stop was the Boot Room. We saw the first team’s boots but we didn’t stay long because the kids complained it was too smelly!

We went to the Referee’s Office and met the assistant referee. I think he was a bit embarrassed when the Liaison Officer asked “who likes Referee’s” and no one put their hand up.

Then we visited the Changing Room, as the stadium is owned by the council the baths are not nice and fancy, everything is white and not very well kept. Usually football teams have one large bath but at Swindon Town they have six tiny baths all lined up next to each other.

The Liaison Officer showed us the first team’s outfits, the kids were amazed that we could see and the kits. He showed us Michael Pook’s kit. Michael was 10 when he came to Swindon Town and he worked his way into the first team when he was 21. Michael is a brilliant player who has really helped the team, without him they wouldn’t have done as well as they have. He is a real inspiration to us all.

Finally we visited the Gym. All the kids had a go on the equipment.

After the tour the kids from Melksham Town went for some training.

One of the parents watching the training said “We were on the Astro turf, there was a biting wind in our faces, the rain was coming in torrents but despite all this the kids listened really well and tried their hardest.”

The coach was very professional; he quickly got to know all the names of the kids and had full control of them. The training sessions worked really well. Having done several sessions involving ball control the team moved on to playing games where they had one group trying to get the ball off two other groups and they had to count how many passes they made. They then moved on to playing proper football two teams at a time which were evenly matched so all the boys got to try out their new skills and different positions.

After training everybody got dried off and went for lunch. For lunch we had sausage rolls, crisps, mars bars fruit juice and an apple. After lunch we went back to the stadium to watch a really entertaining game. Swindon won 2-1.