The football season is well underway and with that in mind I visited the Ross-on-Wye Sports Centre for a training session with Ross Juniors.

I met up with Andy Young, coach of the U17 squad who put me through my paces.

Like most people, I dabbled in football growing up but without much dinstinction.

I was immediately impressed by the quality of the lads in the U17 squad, all of whom were technically gifted and hard workers.

Andy started us off with two laps of the pitch. At this point I stayed at the front of the group, with the knowledge that my technical ability would not be up to scratch, I wanted to impress with my fitness levels.

Immediately after we went straight into passing and moving drills, where my technical inefficiencies became glaringly apparent. All of the squad were gifted footballers and their one touch passing was superb, with every pass delivered straight to the target’s feet. My passing, on the other hand, was poor, with several passes finding their way into space and not into feet.

It was about to become more difficult for me as Andy put us into an attack and defence drill. I was placed in defence, alongside Tom Goulding at centre back.

To read Ellis’ feature in full, pick up this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette.