
Team of the Year, Business in the Community and Small Business of the Year entrant – PCT Coaching
A football coaching company that began as a one-man-band in 2017 now has 27 staff including a current professional and four semi-professional footballers.
PCT Coaching was set up by former Army mechanic Martyn Irvine 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.
The team, which includes a Wales women’s coach, deliver tailored sessions to hundreds of children each week. PCT is also home to 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.
“I just don’t want anybody to be told they’re not good enough or turned away. A lot of places won’t take footballers on unless they’re a certain standard. We’re not like that.”
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.
PCT Coaching has entered the Small Business of the Year, Business in the Community and Team of the Year categories of University of Staffordshire Business Awards.