Lancaster and Morecambe College's football courses have proved extremely popular, in attracting talent from across the North West and feeding several players into the Christie Park first team.

Now the college's footballers will get the chance to play at Giant Axe as well after a link was agreed with Lancaster City.

Iain Parkinson, from the College, said: "The quality of player we have is massive and we want them to play locally. It is not in competition with what we do with Morecambe, it is feeding junior players down here as well.

"We had nearly 60 lads at our Development Centre last year and this year's entry is the best we have ever had.

"Hopefully we can get as many as possible to play to support our lads and for the benefit of Lancaster City Football Club.

"We want to work full on with both clubs. We have lads that are coming to us from League clubs and want to get back into the system.

"Some of our lads are like whippets, put them with some experienced payers and it will be a great mix.

Coach Gary Kelly said: "We have a lot of players that don't go to Morecambe, they end up in the North West Counties, Northern Premier or Conference.

"We have players like Jonathon Smith at Forest Green Rovers and Shaun Gray at Fleetwood Town."

Current Lancaster City players Mike Rushton and Michael Stringfellow and ex-player Ryan-Zico Black were all at Lancaster and Morecambe College.

Lancaster City chairman Ian Sharp was hopeful that the players who will be coming to the club will make an impact.

He said: "We have always encouraged local talent. Last year we had six or seven local lads in the team and they did really well.

"We are hoping that with the academy on board, we can bring in four or five into the first team."