Young AFC Wimbledon supporters had the chance to watch first-teamers preparing for the next season on Thursday (July 26) and even enjoyed a pre-season kickabout with the players.

Around 200 fans attended the club’s open training day at New Malden last week, ahead of Wimbledon’s league opener at Fleetwood on Saturday.

Andrew May, AFC Wimbledon Foundation's School Football Development Manager, said: “With the move to a new ground coming, as a Foundation we are trying to grow what we do.

“We want to grow the younger generation to be Wimbledon supporters. We had kids at the event who are Arsenal and Chelsea fans, but hopefully with events like this they think 'Wimbledon is a great club and we can come along and meet the players'. It was very pleasing.”

After watching the first-team put through their paces at the training ground, children played in small-sided games with the players, participated in penalty shoot-outs, and took part in a Q & A with manager Neal Ardley.

Neal Ardley added: “The players put on coaching sessions for the kids and I did a Q & A afterwards. It was all a lot of fun and holding it on a beautiful day helped.

“It was good to see the players do a little bit of coaching because it's not as easy as the staff here make it look. It was good fun and everyone got to watch a first-team training session that was proper preparation for the games at the weekend."