A TEAM of promising young footballers were put through their paces during a visit to a top Spanish club.

The under-13s and under-15s teams from Forest School spent a week training at La Liga club Villarreal where they were given a taste of life for top professionals.

The visit, during the October half-term break, involved the youngsters taking part in a series of training sessions and matches coached by the club's staff.

George Paynter, a teacher at the school, in College Place, said: "The training was all technique-based and concentrated a great deal on possession. 

"In their first fixture on the Sunday evening, both Forest teams lost 3-0 to Sueca. 

"In their second game on the Tuesday evening the U13s drew 1-1 with Daniel Adasonla scoring the goal and in extremely dark conditions the U15s drew 0-0. 

"The standard of football was considerably better than in the previous games, and the intensive training the boys were doing was already starting to show in their performances. 

"By now the boys were starting to tire and a few were struggling with injuries, so four more hours of training and another game on the Wednesday was going to be very testing.

"Nonetheless, the boys mustered up the energy from somewhere and both teams produced their best performances of the week, with the U13s winning 3-1 and the U15s drawing 1-1.

As well as playing lots of football the boys also got the chance to watch Valencia v Barcelona, tour Villarreal's Madrigal Stadium, and meet a few of the club's players including former Manchester United forward Guiseppe Rossi and ex-Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires.