EXCITED youngsters from the Blue Brazil Boys Club got to train with a top Premiership player in a special coaching session.

St Johnstone’s Steven Anderson, who scored the opening goal and picked up Man of the Match in last year’s Scottish Cup Final win, went along to Beath High School to help out with the Blue Brazil 2009s training session and get them prepared for their first ever game.

The five-year-olds were in high spirits as they practised their skills and showed off what they could do, and Steven admitted that it was a bit different to a training session with his Saints team mates!

“It’s a bit new to me but I’m learning,” he said. “I’ve just been taking part, trying to talk to them and see what they want to do and getting involved.

“They knew I was coming so I think they were quite excited. I don’t think they knew how important the Scottish Cup is yet, but they’ll get there!” While club manager Ross McMillan put the youngsters through their paces with Steven, coach David Shankland told the Times about what the kids had been up to.

“Today we’ve been concentrating on bylines, helping them understand what a shy is and what happens when the ball goes out of play,” he said. “It’s a learning curve. We’ve also been focusing on discipline, and the kids have been good at checking their opponent is okay after a tackle instead of kicking lumps out of each other in their excitement!

“This session has been very much typical of what we normally do but with Steven in they’ve been on their toes all day! It’s been excellent, the whole purpose was to give them a lift and they’ve all been on cloud nine, bouncing about the place.” Competitive games don’t come until the youngsters are a bit older, but the coaching team lined up a friendly game at the weekend to give the budding footballers a taste of the action.

“It’s their first year and they’ve got their first game on Saturday,” David said. “It’s just a friendly so they can further develop. A lot of them have older brothers who play for the Blue Brazil teams and they see them going off to games and they want to be the same, so they’re looking forward to it. We’re playing at Dalgety Bay and we’re hoping to make a regular thing of it to give them something to look forward to.

“We gave them out their own football strips tonight, so now they have their club badge and their own names and numbers too.”