The Charter Standard club have over 250 boys and girls playing from Under 6 to Under 16.

And they now have a permanent base at Carr Green J&I school, where they have created an extra pitch for the senior sides and are further hoping to develop facilities.

As a result, the Under 11s have made a particularly spectacular start to the season.

They top Division’s 4A and 4B and neither team has yet suffered a defeat.

The club have also just held their successful penalty shoot-out fund-raiser.

Chairman Charlie Tolley explained: “We have around 250 youngsters taking part from all the age groups and it proves a very popular event.

“We’ve been doing it for around 10 years now, the players all take five penalties each and we end up with a winner from each age group.

“It’s sponsored on how many penalties are scored – we do the aggregate from 1,000 – and it generally raises us in excess of £1,000, which is great.”

A lot of work has been put in at Carr Green (see picture right) and the club hope this will help provide extra stability.

“We have been somewhat nomadic over recent years playing matches at various places,” explained Tolley.

“The mini-soccer was always played at Carr Green, but now we have put in a full-sized 11-a-side pitch alongside, so all the age groups are now hosted in the one location.

“The longer-term aim now is to hopefully form a clubhouse and changing rooms and continue to improve the facilities we have there.”