School reunion

With the crucial Euro 2008 Qualifier at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster against the Czech Republic on Thursday, England internationals Sue Smith and Jill Scott visited local Doncaster school St Peter's Catholic Primary School in association with main FA sponsors Nationwide.

For many of the young children, this would be the first time they had met England football stars, especially women, who fresh from their World Cup appearance last year are looking to cover themselves with further glory in the European Championships.

The girls started with a special fun warm up session to get the children in the right frame of mind followed by coaching sessions. It was then down to a questions and answer session with a grilling on where they lived, life as a women footballer and whether they had met the men’s squad.

With 66 caps and 14 goals for England, Leeds United's Smith talked about the game and her role in promoting a healthy lifestyle.

"I have played down here at Doncaster for Leeds against the Belles and the stadium is the best we have played at in the Premier League," she said.

"It’s a fantastic stadium and I love it here. We are hoping that it will be a big crowd because although most of us are used to smaller crowds at club level it gives us a big boost to run out to a full stadium. So we hope everyone comes and supports us.

"It’s not a problem to make that step up crowd-wise and in China for the World Cup we played to as many as 30,000 fans."

"Today is another important role, by getting the kids involved and getting the chance to talk to them to tell them what we do. They don’t get many chances to get up close and ask the sort of questions we got today, so its important that they see we are just like them and they can achieve this by working hard.

"I feel its important to get them involved in physical exercise through football or sport in general. We made it fun today and the kids really loved it. It was good to see more girls wanting to take part because when I started there would be one or two, but now all the girls are interested in playing football.

"You can see the improvement in standards of women’s football especially for me who has played from quite a young age."

Everton and England star Scott, fresh from appearing for her club in the League Cup Final win over Arsenal, talked about her ambition to not only play at the top, but also to coach.

"Its been great to get out today and meet the kids with such enthusiasm to enjoy a healthy fitness session with us," she said.

"Many of them were not aware about the game, so we could promote that while giving them a training session. I feel we get better recognition as being England players by the younger kids because at the older end they expect David Beckham or Wayne Rooney if they are told England players are coming, but once they meet and talk to us we soon get their attention - especially the girls.

"I really want to coach after I have qualified at Loughborough, so I really enjoyed today’s session with the children and felt quite comfortable with them."