THE Newport County AFC Junior Academy has received a £1,000 boost courtesy of the Smile Council supporters group.

The Smile Council presented junior academy secretary Darren Broadribb with a £1000 cheque to help towards running costs.

“Yet again, for the fourth year running, our friends the Smile Council pledged to help raise funds for the junior academy and we really appreciate their support,” said Broadribb.

“They are a fantastic group of blokes who are all die-hard County fans and are dedicated to help fund the everyday running costs of the junior academy.

“It costs approximately £40,000 a season to run so you can imagine what a challenge we face every year and this will certainly help.

“The Smile Council has supported the junior academy over the past three years, giving over £10,000 in donations, which has helped us to raise the standard of the academy by using the best facilities that Newport can offer coupled with some of the best UEFA-trained coaches in the South Wales area.

“It’s an ongoing battle to raise the money and unfortunately 75 per cent of this comes from player subs payments of £40 a month from the parents, which isn’t ideal but something we have to do to survive.”

Broadribb added: “In the bigger picture we strive to give our academy players the best opportunity to progress through our academy set-up to hopefully go onto play for the first team one day.

“Recent success with some of our under-18s breaking into the first team squad earlier this season and Regan Poole completing his dream move to Manchester United shows that we must be doing something right.

“The Regan Poole sale also brought in some fantastic revenue in to the club at a difficult time, which was really rewarding news for all of us involved.

“We are constantly looking for new sponsors and have some fantastic sponsorship opportunities available, so if you would like to join our family of supporters please contact us at darren.broadribb@newport-county.co.uk.”