Widnes Football Club is delighted to announce that the Club has joined the Northern Premier League Football Academy programme ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Although clubs normally join 12 months in advance, the Club will kick start a new programme in September 2018 due to an overflow of recent applicants.

Evo-Stik League newcomers Widnes will become the 14th club to join the programme, joining local clubs such as Warrington Town and Witton Albion.

The new programme will initially be based at the Prescot Soccer Centre.

Chairman Ian Ross said, “We were looking to join the NPLFA in September 2019 as one of their intake of new clubs, but to get the chance to kick start a new programme this September is excellent news.

“The NPLFA programme has seen significant growth and we were delighted initially to have been chosen as one of the new clubs for the 2019/20 season. We know all about the NPLFA through their success and as soon as we were promoted to the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League, were interested in developing a programme at the Club with the leagues education and football programme.

“After speaking to the organisation, they have been inundated with applications from around our area since September 2017 and we are now on the lookout to form our first group in just seven weeks – a tough task but we are excited to see if we can make that happen.”

“It suits our club and I imagine that most clubs at our level with the resources we have, to have an organisation manage the whole process, dealing with all the requirements of setting up and maintaining such a programme.

“Of course, we will contribute and provide our support along the way as we want to attract students to our club and develop a wider community involvement and hopefully potential first team players.”

An NPLFA spokesperson said, “Normally we recruit for a full year with new clubs, however we have an overflow of students from the area who wanted to take part in the programme.

“We feel with those numbers we can kick start a new programme earlier than our normal procedure and the club are very enthusiastic and committed having originally signed up to start in September 2019.

“Widnes has an excellent catchment area and we are confident in the future they will have an excellent academy in place.”

With a maximum of twenty places available, there are trials taking place every Monday and Wednesday in August from 12pm – 1.30pm at Prescot Soccer Centre, Warrington Road, Prescot, L35 5AD starting Monday 30th July.

To apply, CLICK HERE.