TWO of Swindon Town's all-time greats and most respected players are assisting the game at grass roots level.

Don Rogers and John Trollope MBE, both members of the Town's victorious 1969 Wembley League Cup winning side, have been passing on some of their vast knowledge to young players at under 11 level.

Trollope, 60, is employed by the Football League and visits the Academy and Schools of Excellence run by football clubs in the Midlands and South West.

Rogers, 58, has in the past managed Swindon Town Youths and several local clubs.

He runs a successful sports shop and business in the town and is also president of the new North Wilts Youth League which is enjoying a successful debut season.

Together with Trollope they have been helping to coach and are managing the North Wilts Youth League's under 11 representative side.

"At under 11s they only play friendlies," said Rogers, "But John and I have held one training session with them at Dorcan and hope to hold a few more in the new year it will be an ongoing thing.

"It is not easy getting the lads together in the dark and finding pitches for them to play on."

Rogers continued: "The team have played three friendly games and lost them all but that does not matter it has been very enjoyable.

"It is a case of getting them used to the next step up in football and playing on bigger sized pitches.

"In the last match they actually played on a full-sized pitch at the County Ground.

"Although they lost to the Swindon School of Excellence side who train a couple of times a week they were 100 per cent better than in the previous match and led for a while 1-0 on the County Ground which is a plus for the lads.

"It is very good experience for them they are not in to win things, we are just giving them a game and helping them along."

Rogers and Trollope watched on as the North Wilts Youth sides locked horns with their Swindon Town Centre of Excellence counterparts in a series of games at the County Ground last week.

Each of the North Wilts sides were beaten but some of the performances were encouraging.

The under 12 team suffered a 7-1 defeat. Joe Harris was one of the few North Wilts players to emerge from the game with any credit, rounding of a fine individual display with his team's only goal a superb 30-yard lob.

The under 11 team fell to a 4-1 loss, despite looking the better side for the opening 20 minutes.

The North Wilts goal arrived midway through the first half when Dominic Rekowski got his on the end of a sweet left-footed free-kick from Jay Goddard.

The midfield trio of Lee Scott, Henry Finigan and Henry Traas stifled Swindon, but some sloppy defending before the break let the hosts level before the break.

Town scored twice more at the start of the second period and added a late fourth against the side coached by Rogers and Trollope.

In two games at under 10 level, North Wilts were beaten 2-1 and 5-1.

The defensive partnership of Robbie Woodford, Paul Turner and Tom Glass was the backbone of manager Becky Gammon's team and with Alex Swatridge in goal behind them, Swindon could only register two deflected goals.

In the second game Lewis Petrie scored for North Wilts after some fine midfield work from George Hughes, James Kearns and Sophie Barrett and 5-1 flattered Town's team.

At under nine level, Swindon triumphed 2-0 and 4-0.

In the first game Manager Paul Merchant gave praise to Craig Hatherall in goal for some fine saves, Carl Merchant for his flair going forward and Daniel Dicks for work rate and tackling in midfield.

Liam Gallagher was man of the match in the second match and deserved a goal after running the Town defence ragged.