13-year-old striker Joshua Godfrey caught the eye of a Colchester United scout whilst playing at our Essex trial back in April.

When speaking with Josh he told us: “Firstly I'd like to thank you for helping me to get scouted by Colchester United, it’s brilliant fun and I love the Friday sessions at the Elite centre.”

Talking with josh more about his football history, he explained: “I started playing football at Galleywood in Chelmsford when I was seven and always played as a striker.”

He continued: “From there I went to Heybridge swifts and eventually managed to get into Chelmsford City u11s where I won lots of trophies both for my team and individually.”

“I continued my journey to Billericay Town u14s who I am still currently playing for but Colchester is my next challenge and I'm working really hard to get to the academy, thanks for making it possible.” He added.

Speaking with Joshua’s father Gordon, he too explained in more detail about his son’s football background: “Josh has been going around in circles for what seems like forever scoring goals and pouring blood, sweat and tears into the game season after season. He really does work extremely hard.”

“He’s won three footballer of the year awards in 6 seasons of playing as well as a golden boot whilst playing in all the leagues from Blackwater to EJA all around Essex, Suffolk and East London and scored well over 300 goals with both feet and his head.”

Moving on to his time with Colchester, Gordon told us: "He’s been invited to their Elite centre at Shenfield on Friday evenings for further assessing they train and play games in a group of u14s and u15s so its really hard and fast but he's rising to the challenge and truly loving it.”

“I’d like to thank you all for the incredible experience and the opportunity that has come from the trial day!"

When asked what advice he had for players in a similar position to Josh, Gordon told us: “My advice to any aspiring footballers out there would be work hard and get down to a UK Football Trials event.”

If you would like to keep up to date with Josh’s progress you can follow him on Instagram by searching @josh_godfrey2007