WORCESTER City hope to bring thr-ough more young talent from next season thanks to the setting-up of a new-look youth academy.

The club has gone into partnership with Wor-cester College of Technology to set up a youth development programme for young players.

The programme will enable promising young players aged from 16-20 to train every day of the week in tandem with completing their education at the college.

Consequently, the club is looking to appoint a youth development officer to oversee the new programme.

Trials will be held during the summer to select talented young players, and City's football secretary Steve Bond said: "They will do either mornings or afternoons coaching five days a week, and for the rest of the week they will be studying at the college. It will be treated as a full-time youth team.

"It has been at least 18 months that we have been talking about it. We were certainly talking about it this time last year but we decided to wait a year so we could get it up and running. We are moving fast now.

"It gives the coach two hours a day and more time to work with young players. At the moment you might get one or two nights per week if you are lucky," said Bond.

"The youth development officer's brief from the trials will be to bring together 18 young players, and then there will be a further 18 the following year."

Besides the youth team playing in their current league, the Midland Floodlit Youth League, the club is also investigating playing in the Nationwide Conference's PASE League, which they were introduced to by former ground-sharing tenants Telford United.

It's a league in which several Conference clubs' youth teams play, and involves games on midweek afternoons.

They plan to use facilities at the city's YMCA for training, and part of the arrangement will also see the first-team players use the college's facilities and training for the club's stewards on the college site in Deansway.

Terry Dillingham, assistant principal at the college, added: "The benefits for the college are that we will be looking to recruit more students because the nature of the programme is both football training and development but at the same time preparing them for a career.

"Even if some of these youngsters really make it in the game, at some time they are going to going to need part-time or full-time employment outside football.

"We are anxious at the college to improve our links with all parts of the local community, and we see this as meeting part of our goal in doing that."

City have seen several promising youngsters progress all the way from the youth team down the years, from experienced midfielder Ian Cottrill to current squad members Jamie Hyde and Paul Wyatt, and they hope the new programme will enable even more players to come through.

Midfielder Steve Lutz has strong links with the college as a former student, and still coaches their soccer team,

Anyone wanting a prospectus should call in at the college in Deansway, Worcester, or for more information contact the club on 01905-23003.

City take on the bottom two in the Dr Martens League Premier Division this weekend, with a trip to basement boys Fisher Athletic on Saturday followed by a home clash with Dorchester Town on Monday.

The Dorchester game is poised to be midfielder Ian Cottrill's 400th game for the St George's Lane club, making him only the seventh player in the history of the club to reach that landmark.