GRETAR STEINSSON and Kevin Davies took time out of their heavy pre-season training schedule in July to spend an hour at Bolton Arena with three and four year olds. 

First Steps Football is a new Club initiative launched by Junior Whites in June and is being run as an eight-week course with the involvement of Football In The Community coaches.

Traditionally, children are not given the opportunity to play football in a structured environment until they reach the age of five, but Bolton Wanderers has broken this trend by giving their youngest supporters the opportunity to experience the game at a much earlier age.

The sessions have proved to be an immediate success with numbers more than doubling with over sixty boys and girls now attending the hour-long weekly sessions which focus on developing their coordination, concentration, balance and basic teamwork skills.

Steinsson and Davies assisted the FITC coaches with the small sided matches and spent time meeting the children and their parents.

Icelandic international, Gretar Steinsson, said: "It's great to get the chance to come over here and see the work the Club is doing with such young supporters. They all seem to be having a really good time which is so important when they are so young. Who knows, maybe we will discover a Bolton Wanderers player of the future!"

Kevin Davies added: "I think it's great that the club are encouraging children of such a young age to enjoy football. They seem to have involved a bit of everything and it's great for them to be able to socialise with other children with one common interest."

The sessions, organised in conjunction with the Junior Whites Children's membership scheme, involve the children being split into four groups and rotated around a 20-minute session to enable the children to keep their concentration and focus levels to a maximum.

For more information on Junior Whites, call 01204 673 770.