Pat Staunton from the Middlesex County FA talks local children through some skills drills. (0735786)

THE football ‘skills revolution’ has hit Guernsey.

The FA Tesco Skills Programme is a revolutionary way of teaching football to boys and girls between the ages of five and 11 years old.

It aims to improve technique, confidence and ball skills by way of age-appropriate coaching.

And a total of 165 local budding football stars from Years 1 to 6 were put through their paces recently at St Martin’s School by two skills coaches from the Middlesex County FA – Pat Staunton and Eduardo Rubio.

According to GFA development officer Paul Mooney, the sessions were a great success.

‘There were very successful and there seemed to be a great response from the kids,’ he said.

‘Many of the county FAs on the mainland have full-time skills coaches. We’d like to have more of them over or have our own, but it’s down to funding.’