A football coaching company that began as a one-man-band in 2017 has grown to have 16 employees, including a current professional footballer.

PCT Coaching was set up by former Army mechanic Martyn Irvine in 2017 after an aspiring player asked him to help with training ahead of trials with football clubs.

The business now has Stoke-on-Trent’s largest indoor, private training facility at its base in Longton.

Its team of 16 coaches, including a current Oldham Athletic player, deliver tailored sessions to more than 200 children each week. PCT is also home to six junior football teams.

“If you’d told me my career would be coaching football I wouldn’t have believed you,” said Martyn, who served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers for 12 years.

“I began by helping one person, coaching them in a park, and then more and more people asked me to help them.

“We support and love every single person that comes through the doors. Most of them are children. They’re not footballers, they’re young people who want to be footballers. We want to help them to be young people who can go out into society and be the best they can be.”

After starting off using a park for training, in 2021 PCT moved into part of the former ceramic factory at Sylvan Works in Longton so that training could continue regardless of the weather.

Martyn’s team of coaches support individuals in developing their social, physical, technical and psychological traits within the world of football.

They often work with children who have been turned down by football teams. So far 62 children have been placed into football teams after being told they weren’t good enough elsewhere and are now thriving under the guidance of the team of coaching experts at PCT.

Martyn added: “We just want to help as many people as we can. The biggest thing for us is that we’ve got experts who have played and coached at a high level or who are still involved in playing football professionally.”

PCT Coaching has entered the Small Business of the Year and Team of the Year categories of the Staffordshire University Business Awards.