Preston North End are delighted to announce a new partnership with Cockerham Juniors FC, which will hopefully unearth and develop the next generation of young footballing talent.

School children from the ages of six to fifteen years  will reap the benefits of having experienced UEFA 'A' licensed coaches visit their club on a regular basis and help progress their ability.

This is just one of many links that the Lilywhites are forging with a number of local junior clubs in the Greater Preston region with the aim to discover the next Paul McKenna or Andy Lonergan.

Speaking about the affiliation, Youth Development Officer Darren Finch explained:

"Every professional footballer will have started in junior football and it is no different today. To find the best young players in the Preston area then we have got to start fashioning links with junior teams again.

"Cockerham are just one of a few clubs that we are working with in the hope that we can bring a high standard of coaching to their teams and it obviously gives us the chance to have a good look at their players.

"We don't want to go in and steal players but it's every coaches duty at junior level to give their child a chance to go as high as possible and you never know where it may lead."

Dave Graham, Club Welfare Officer for Cockerham Juniors, also expressed his delight in the new partnership.

He said: "We've made contact with Darren Finch and Gary Robinson and following a meeting we have decided that we would like to follow those links through and start off a Soccer School.

"It's a nice thing to be involved with a professional football club and we will feel the benefits of having different qualified coaches to come down and give kids a different perspective of the game to what we can offer. It just adds to the general excitement for the kids to be involved with Preston North End.

"I'm hoping this is going to go from strength to strength and hopefully Preston North End will have the chance to look at a lot of young players from this area.

"It's early days at the moment but we have got fantastic relationship with the people who are involved in the Youth Development at Preston. It's a scheme that we have no qualms about being involved in and we recommend it to everybody else."