King’s Lynn Town’s Academy manager Joe Simpson has offered a ray of hope in troubled times at the club.

It follows the announcement of the club’s Academy trials alongside the launch of a Regional Talent Centre (RTC), under the leadership of football development officer Dale Stokes.

Less than a year ago, Lynn entered a partnership with the King Edward VII Academy to provide a joint structure of tutorial education, alongside football coaching provided jointly by the club’s and school’s coaches. The team plays fixtures in the National League’s Academy Division’s, visiting the likes of clubs such as Mansfield, Alfreton Town and Tamworth. Despite the pandemic numbers on the course were outstanding for a maiden season and with early indications of an even bigger uptake for the new school year in September Simpson sees many reasons to be optimistic.

“The students have all been first class, as have the school.” he told the club's official website. "Much hard work has already been undertaken in the first year and we are now at the stage where we are ready to launch trials for our Under 19 Academy scholars at the end of the month for the next academic year where we will be looking for boys and girls to join us on what is an exciting journey to possibly representing either our men’s or women’s teams at senior level.”

The RTC scheme will host trials for boys and girls next month as the club looks to launch a clear pathway for youngsters to progress through the football club from ages as young as six and seven years old.

Stokes added: “We have two teams in the Junior Premier League at Under-12 and Under-16 level and both were going along so well until, again, they were stopped by the pandemic. Of course we will be looking for young talent to hopefully represent the club at the highest level possible in the years that follow, but I believe that kids of the ages of six, seven, eight and so on should be enjoying the fantastic game that football is at that age as well as gaining valuable life skills such as working as a team and responsibility."

Full details of all trials are available at www.kltown.co.uk.