Southend United Community Trust are encouraging local clubs and schools to bring groups of young people to the Big Saturday Match Experience.

The initiative involves pre-match coaching sessions before the children come to Roots Hall to watch the Southend United first team in action for a match of their choice.

Groups can bring as little as 10 to over 100 children to take part in the coaching, which is structured and organised for the relevant age and experience.

Community Chief Executive Steve Goodsell said: "The groups will have the chance to do pre-match coaching with the Southend United Community Trust coaches and after that they will be able to come to Roots Hall to watch a game of their choice.

"It is all organised by us and all of these sessions will take place at Playfootball.com, which is based at The Chase College in Southend.

"They will get a matchday programme and come and watch Southend's first team in action.

"As the title suggests, we have only been doing this on Saturday's, but we are also expanding it, so we can cater for Friday night games and midweek matches if clubs would like to book and come along.

"The clubs themselves can even tell us what they would like to coach the children, if there is any particular team building exercise or attacking play that can be built into the session."

If you are interested in joining the Saturday Match Experience or if you would like further information, contact Steve Goodsell on 01702 341351 or email: s.goodsell@southendunited-cet.co.uk