Semi-pro club Aldershot recently scouted 16-year-old goalkeeper Josh Barnett from Surrey, after he attended our December trial in West London.

Josh impressed scouts with his display between the sticks, when speaking with him after the trial he told us: “I’ve never had any specialist training or played at an academy. I’ve only ever played for my local club so yeah, I’m happy I caught the eye of a scout.”

After learning of the interest from Aldershot, Josh was officially invited to a trial to put him through his paces.

“I got asked to go down for a days trial for Aldershot, it was mainly just a lot of pitch work like shooting, drills and then a match,” Josh revealed.

“The players at Aldershot were to a very high standard; when I was there I was working with first and second years who were very capable footballers. Along with that, the coaching was also very good, one of them also had links to Sunderland.”

Once again Josh showed to be a safe pair of hands while on trial for Aldershot. 

He added: “I was asked to stay behind after the session and the club stated that they were going to make me an offer.

“I was then asked to go down and spend a day with them but unfortunately, they had a game which no longer made this possible.”

In the mean time, Josh had also attracted interest from Dorking Wanderers, who he ultimately signed for.

Despite his choice to join Dorking, Josh spoke highly of Aldershot and spoke of his desire to progress even further.

“My next steps are to next season try and progress into the u23’s as soon as possible. 
“I was told I could do that this season but with my GCSE’s and exams coming up, my parents wouldn’t of been too happy about that. 

“So yeah, I’m just going to keep working hard, focus on playing for Dorking and hopefully get noticed by and picked up by a professional club as that’s my main aim.”

Everyone at UK Football Trials would like to wish Josh all the very best in the future with both his footballing career and his GCSE’s.