Dainton Roberts has been attending AFC Fylde Community Foundation's Development Centre for over two years and has now developed the confidence to move into a grassroots team.
The Foundation's Development Centre accommodates children aged from as young as 2 years old all the way to 14 years of age, across Monday and Tuesday evenings, and Saturday mornings, with a Goalkeeper Development Centre running for ages 6 - 16 every Wednesday evening.
Dainton has attended on Monday nights for the previous 24 months, a process that Emma Roberts, Dainton's Mum, has described as "really easy," in an attempt to develop his skills and confidence.
Emma believes: "His skills have absolutely developed since attending the Development Centre, both his skills and confidence have grown massively and without that he wouldn't be joining grassroots team."
Emma was also full of praise for the coaches and other projects the Foundation run: "I would 100% recommend the Development Centre to others. The entire process across the two years has been really easy. The coaches have been brilliant, they've always been really good.
"Dainton has done a few of the Holiday Camps as well at Fylde Sports and Education Centre which we found out about through the Development Centre."
Dainton himself said: "The thing I most enjoyed about the Development Centre was just playing football," life's a lot simpler as a child isn't it?
When asked what specific attribute he believes has come along the most, Dainton replied with: "I think I've improved at everything to be honest."
Dainton recently made his debut for Kirkham Juniors, scoring with his first touch of the game and then proceeding to double his tally later on in the game - what a way to make an impression in your first game.
The Development Centre has experienced record-breaking growth for a second year in a row. Growing by an extraordinary 108% since summer 2022.
Due to popular demand we have created a new session on Monday evenings and are always looking at other options of how to expand and improve our delivery.
Our Football & Education Co-ordinator, Connor Williams, is in charge of running the Development Centre and he said: "This is exactly what our sessions are all about, Dainton is a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve here at the Foundation.
"We aim to progress as many children - boys or girls - as possible into grassroot teams or academies and it's brilliant that Dainton and his Mum have provided us the opportunity to highlight his success and hopefully find more children like Dainton who would benefit from the great development our coaches produce."
"Myself and our coaches can only do our job if children like Dainton are willing to engage so I'd like to take this chance to thank Dainton and all the other children who have attended our Development Centre over the last couple of years.
"The growth of the Development Centre wouldn't be possible without the children and the parents committing and attending every week - in all kinds of weather after busy days at school and work, so again, thank you to all."
If you know of a child that wants to start playing football or already loves playing that you think would benefit from our Development Centre, please email connor.williams@afcfylde.co.uk.
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