The Seagulls will welcome Leeds United to Trungle Parc at the start of October, with the Yorkshire club agreeing to play the new Mousehole Elite Player Team in a game to celebrate the creation of their Elite and Youth Player Development Programme and the launch of the refurbished ground after major works this Summer.

Former Premiership player and Leeds United coach Andy Gray (pictured) has also been drafted in to co-host the Elite Player trials this Saturday (1st July) alongside incoming Academy Director Jason Blunt, due to big demand for places.  The duo were until recently colleagues at the Championship club, with Blunt in charge of the under-23s and Gray the under-18s.

Because of the high number and quality of 16-23 year olds applying for the trials, the club intends to add another six promising 16-17 year-olds to the twelve selected for the first team squad, with all 18 taking part in the elite coaching programme led by Blunt.

Blunt was keen to emphasise the importance of the trials: “We are looking for the best young players in the region with the aptitude, attitude and ambition to take full advantage and to get selected for our EP.  As well as joining our state of the art coaching programme, they will now be kicking the programme off playing against my old club Leeds United in a couple of months’ time!”

He added: “Andy (Gray) and I have many years’ experience coaching young players and we love unearthing and fostering talent.  We’re hugely looking forward to identifying and then developing the local talent, with our club leaders and coaches Steve Parker-Billinge, Andrew Graham, Matt George and the rest of the team.”

39-year old Andy Gray’s career highlights are 114 goals in over 500 games for the likes of Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Burnley, transfer fees of around £2m, and international caps for Scotland.  His father is former Leeds player and manager Frank Gray, and his uncle Eddie Gray was one of the stars of the legendary Leeds team of the 1960s and 70s.

Seagulls’ Chairman Tim Richardson said: “It’s an immense privilege to have two such illustrious coaches in Jason and Andy to kick-start the elite programme.  Together with our youth trials coming up next weekend, it shows our desire and commitment to nurturing local talent.”

• The online applications link for the trials is at www.mouseholeafc/trials, with the trials scheduled for 12 noon to 5pm this Saturday 1^stJuly, at Mounts Bay Academy 3G pitch.