St Asaph club is appealing for further coaches

St Asaph City, which runs two senior sides in the North Wales Ardal Leagues, also fields over 80 youngsters in five sides from under-six to under-12s in the Rhyl and District Junior League.

It now has a new 20-foot storage unit from Denbigh-based Container Sales Service to house their matchday and training equipment.

In the last six years the club, which plays at Roe Plas, alongside the River Elwy, in the heart of one of the UK’s smallest cities, has carried out a series of ground improvements including new hard-standing on two sides of the pitch, improved changing facilities and a 100-seater stand.

Club chairman John Roberts is keen to recruit more coaches to cope with the demand from local youngsters to join the club and he said: “We have over 80 training here two nights a week but we are having to turn some away.

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“The coaches we have do a great job and we support them to get their qualifications but we could do with more people coming forward to help because then we’d be able to provide a game of football for more young players because they’re going to be the next generation of the club.

“We used to run under-16 and under-13 sides but found that during Covid it was difficult to retain teenage players but we’ve had such a demand from primary school age children.

“They have been the ones most affected by the lockdowns and being able to play football with their friends is really good for their mental health so we have had a boost in playing numbers and we could cater for even more if we could recruit more coaches.

“They all get their coaching badges, safeguarding and first aid training provided through the club and we’d really like to hear from anyone interested in helping out.”

St Asaph City fields five junior sides

The new unit, which has 1,280 cubic feet of storage space for balls, nets, training cones, corner flags and the rest of the paraphernalia of a football club, was paid for with a £4,000 grant from the Gwynt y Mor Wind Farm Fund and installed by Container Sales Centre.

CSC sales consultant Lisa James said: “The club is really busy and it’s great to see so many young people down here making use of the facilities.

“They have a fantastic youth section here and run so many sides that I can understand why they needed the extra storage space.

“We are finding a lot of local sports clubs and leisure and recreational sports facilities are needing extra space now that life is returning to normal and storage units are perfect for them.”

John Roberts added: “Our old storage facility had outlived its useful life and it was great to be able to find a solution to our storage issues so close to home and CSC have done a great job for us."