A TEENAGER has taken his first step towards becoming a football coach by joining the Salisbury FC Women's team.

Josh Trueman, 17, has dreams of earning his coaching badges and joined Whites just after Christmas to learn his trade.

He has joined several sessions and has shadowed his fellow coaches, studied the players' drills and even completed ‘homework’ set by manager Dave Sawyer, who is his mum's cousin.

Dave joined Salisbury FC in November 2023, and the club returned to competitive action last summer after ‘sitting a season out’.

Whites are training at Avon Valley College (Image: Spencer Mulholland) Josh's mum Mel said: “I asked Dave if he had any ideas for how Josh could get into coaching, and he said he would help him.

“He explained that Josh could learn from him and potentially do his coaching badges through him and continue his coaching journey in the future.

“He’s at the very beginning of his journey, and Dave gave him some homework to do the other night to ask what he might do differently in training.

“Football coaching is ultimately what he would like to do.

“I was so lucky that Dave was able to take Josh under his wing and point him in the right direction.”

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Josh also writes his own reports of the team's matches that he analyses with Dave afterwards to sharpen his tactical knowledge.

Dave said Josh is becoming a popular member of the team.

“Mel started messaging me to say that Josh is really keen to get involved in coaching, so I said, ‘let’s make it happen – let’s see what we can do’,” he said.

“I’ve got five other coaches, so I advised him to shadow me and the others to see what we do.

“I’ve got him a notepad and he’s writing down all the drills.

“I want to see what he views are on the games and what happened, and why it happened – an analysis of our tactics, from his perspective – so we can improve for the next game.

“The team spirit is second to none, and the girls have welcomed him with open arms. You couldn’t get a better bunch.”

Whites are ‘holding their own’ but aim to improve (Image: Spencer Mulholland) Salisbury currently sit in fourth in the Corsham Print Wiltshire Senior League.

“We're holding our own,” said Dave.

“It’s a whole new experience for a lot of us who have never been involved in women’s football before.

“Hopefully next season, we can finish in the top two. That’s the growth we’re looking at.”

The club are on the lookout for more players to join. For more information, contact Dave Sawyer on 07771 532587.