Junior Sport: Jason Walker's JW9 Football Academy looking into hiring bigger venue

Since the academy was formed during the summer, the venue has been Parkside GGI Academy, where Walker works and the number of kids involved has remained healthy.

If anything, interest has gone up since half-term, with more juniors taking part in the second batch of weekly sessions at the school, which are running up until the first week of December.

Obviously, with less daylight hours and the dipping temperatures, they are now being conducted indoors, which means space is at a premium in the sports hall for the more popular age groups.

Walker said: "To be fair, we always knew it was coming because that's the way the weather goes at this time of year.

"It's alright in here and I get what I need to do out of them. It's not too bad, but because there is quite a high demand - and I've had more people enquire again after these sessions - I am trying to get somewhere bigger.

"Things with the academy should progress even further after that."

The academy, which runs sessions for under-5, under-7, under-9 and under-11 age groups every Monday, is an official partner of the Barrow AFC Performance Centre, who it is working with to improve youngsters' technique.

The goals of both is the same, with the emphasis on ball mastery for the younger age groups before they progress into learning other techniques.

On how he tailors training for the under-7s pictured, Walker said: "It's about getting them really comfortable with the ball at their feet mainly.

"Once they do that - and they are now - then you can progress it on to the touches, the different ways of passing, that sort of stuff, and get it into their heads what football is all about.

"It's not just about dribbling and scoring goals, but about getting them comfortable with the ball at their feet at this age.

"But again, so long as they're having fun, then we can keep progressing them along after that."