Walsall schoolchildren got an extra surprise when footballers came to buy tickets for the match

Tommy Simkin and Jamie Jellis visited Castle School in Limore as part of the School Partners ticketing initiative, an initiative Walsall Foundation which offers tickets to local schools at a one-time discounted price to encourage the next generation of fans.

They signed autographs, posed for photographs, and generally interacted with students during the visit.

As part of the ticketing initiative, students and parents can use either two £5 tickets, four £10 tickets or six £15 tickets, after which the Trust will deliver the tickets to schools and the club, foundation and schools receive their share of the proceedings brought.

The trust said a record 1,888 tickets were sold through local schools for Saturday’s game against Crewe Alexandra, matching the year the club was founded, with 46 schools taking part.

Castle students ordered the most of any school – 104 – so as a reward the Trust also gave the school an extra 20 tickets to the Banks Stadium game against Barrow in December.

The trust’s education manager Joe Roberts said the players were invited to deliver tickets and also provide refreshments to the children.

He said: “We went to Castle because they sold the most tickets there, so part of the prize was extra tickets to the Barrow game, but we thought it would be a good idea to ask the players to give tickets to the students.” .

“It was a good way to give the students a chance to meet the players and chat with them before they went to meet them on Saturday.”

“The kids were really excited because it was something very different for them as the school is a special needs school and they don’t usually get that, so we showed them some of Jamie’s heads which really impressed them and they asked.” . who scored, so he stood up and said it was him, and they were very happy.”