Limavady Youths enjoy trip of a lifetime to Premier League team Wolves

The next generation of local footballing stars were put through their paces at Premier League outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers over the weekend.

Up to 70 Limavady Youths players, along with coaches and parents, jetted off to Wolverhampton from City of Derry Airport on Friday afternoon for the trip of a lifetime.

Limavady Youths are a Football Development Partner of the Premier League club.

The lads brought some Limavady luck for their hosts, as Wolves pulled off a brilliant 2-0 victory over high-flying Aston Villa in the West Midlands derby.

There was also some serious business on the agenda as the youths played against some top class opposition and trained at the Sir Jack Hayward Training Ground like the professionals.

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Speaking ahead of the trip, Head Coach Jonathan Cassidy said there was a lot of excitement in the club.

“Opportunities like this for these guys are once in a lifetime. Some kids will never get into an academy and these guys are getting an opportunity to do that and be coached by Wolves coaches,” Jonathan said. “Our Under 11s will be playing Wolves in Compton and the U15s and 16s will be playing top quality opposition, so it's brilliant for them.

“The excitement has been unreal. I've been getting messages about them not being able to sleep because of the excitement."

Jonathan praised the Premier League club since the partnership was formed last March.

“We signed a five-year partnership with Wolves last March and it's been absolutely fantastic,” John explained.

“We've been getting coaching education webinars, loads of communication between the clubs about academy life. So as coaches we can rely that back to the kids.

“We were looking at ways to grow the club and one of those ways was to try and get a professional partnership with a Premier League club.

“We looked at a few of them but we decided on Wolves because they were very inclusive with kids of all levels of ability and that's what we want.

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“We're a community based club and we welcome everybody, boys and girls and Wolves have been absolutely brilliant.

“People like Timmy Dixon, the chairman of the club, and all of the coaches and the committee have made this happen and it's a credit to them. Without them, nothing is possible.”

Jonathan also praised City of Derry Airport who have been a sponsor of the club for a number of years.

Some of the Limavady Youths players pictured in the Wolves changing room during their visit to the Premier League giants.

“They've been brilliant to us,” he said. “It's great to know that the airport is behind us and can make these trips possible. It's such a benefit for the local community having the airport on our doorstep.”

Managing Director of City of Derry Airport Steve Frazer said: “Obviously we're City of Derry Airport but we service the whole of the North West region, so we're really pleased to sponsor Limavady United and to help make this trip possible and we're always looking for these types of opportunities.

“We have had our relationship with Limavady for five years now but that may well change now that they are in the big leagues,” Mr Frazer joked. “But we're really pleased to play our part.

“It's great visibility for our Birmingham route. It's one of our newest routes and we've got 70 kids here with coaches, parents, grandparents so it's great for the airport and our visibility across the Causeway Coast and Glens area which is part of our patch.”