DORCHESTER Town ace James Coutts is confident the club’s soccer schools will go from strength to strength.

The Easter course was due to be run by ex-county town football consultant Gorka Exteberria. However, the Basque-based coach took up a new role at Spanish outfit Deportivo Alaves and Coutts stepped in to fill the void.

The midfielder is keen to increase numbers during the next half-term break but was pleased nonetheless with how the latest sessions went.

He said: “Chairman Shaun Hearn and I only decided fairly late on that we would do the course.

“But we had roughly 30 children attending, which was good considering the advertising was not as big as we would have liked, and the course went really well.

“We’re hoping though to get a lot more for next half-term.

“A lot of the boys then came to our last home game against Chelmsford and we could hear them making noise from the pitch, which was great.”

Coutts was recently appointed the club’s new community officer and he is excited by the challenges that lie ahead.

The 23-year-old added: “The next 12 months will be big in terms of the work in the community. Shaun’s a local guy and he has been really enthusiastic to get it all going. I’ve also been working closely with director David Diaz to get things going.

“It’s about getting out into the community and providing good coaching for the children. We also want to try and make it profitable for the club in terms of bringing children through the gates.”