Several PNE players have taken part in a blind football challenge this week at Springfields to help promote Galloway’s and National Eye Health Week.
Josh Brownhill, Alan Browne, Will Hayhurst, Callum Robinson, Jack Ryan and Nick Anderton all donned blindfolds for a training session with Steve Daley, who is England’s Futsal captain, having represented his country previously at the International Blind Sports Federation Futsal World Cup in Japan.
The players started by doing some light running drills to get used to the feeling of having no sight before the ball was introduced for some control drills.
The session ended with a penalty shootout which resulted in Anderton losing and having to get the coffee round in for his delighted teammates!
And despite the best efforts of Preston’s professional footballers, Daley believes that his international partially sighted teammates don’t have too much to worry about at present.
“I think they are safe enough to stay at PNE, I’m not sure the blind head coach will be calling them up anytime soon!” joked Steve.
“They were really good lads, they really enjoyed it and they put everything into it so that was good.”
And it seems the players were able to second Steve’s assessment of their own performances.
“It was weird, quite scary, but it was fun. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, I was confused where I had to run when I put my blindfold on,” said Brownhill.
“After watching the Paralympic football, you realise just how good those players are now, especially compared to us, we could hardly even kick a football with our blindfolds on let alone run!”
The session was organised with Galloway’s Society For The Blind, and Senior Fundraiser Emma Russ was on hand to tell us a bit more about the charity and their targets.
“Last week was National Eye Health Week and we have spent some time campaigning in the local area around prevention of sight loss,” added Emma.
“The players who have participated have realised just how difficult it can be to play football without full use of their vision.
“We have brought Steve Daley along who helped lead the training session and it gave a good impression of how difficult it is and the challenges that people with sigh loss face on a daily basis.”
To help Galloway’s help the local community, you can vote for the charity in the Lloyds Community Vote by tweeting #CommFund PXZ or by texting PXZ to 61119.
Below, Emma explains what Galloway’s would like to do with you help and support in the above vote.
“The Lloyds Community Vote would enable us to develop a mobile site advice centre, so rather than bringing people into our centres, we understand that people with sight loss have difficulty with transport, so it will enable us to take our resources out into the community.”
You can get more information on the vote by searching for ‘Lloyds Community Fund’ online.
Galloway’s will also be having a charity fundraiser at Deepdale ahead of Saturday’s match with Colchester United with any donations gratefully received.
So please vote now for Galloway’s!
The players started by doing some light running drills to get used to the feeling of having no sight before the ball was introduced for some control drills.
The session ended with a penalty shootout which resulted in Anderton losing and having to get the coffee round in for his delighted teammates!
And despite the best efforts of Preston’s professional footballers, Daley believes that his international partially sighted teammates don’t have too much to worry about at present.
“I think they are safe enough to stay at PNE, I’m not sure the blind head coach will be calling them up anytime soon!” joked Steve.
“They were really good lads, they really enjoyed it and they put everything into it so that was good.”
And it seems the players were able to second Steve’s assessment of their own performances.
“It was weird, quite scary, but it was fun. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, I was confused where I had to run when I put my blindfold on,” said Brownhill.
“After watching the Paralympic football, you realise just how good those players are now, especially compared to us, we could hardly even kick a football with our blindfolds on let alone run!”
The session was organised with Galloway’s Society For The Blind, and Senior Fundraiser Emma Russ was on hand to tell us a bit more about the charity and their targets.
“Last week was National Eye Health Week and we have spent some time campaigning in the local area around prevention of sight loss,” added Emma.
“The players who have participated have realised just how difficult it can be to play football without full use of their vision.
“We have brought Steve Daley along who helped lead the training session and it gave a good impression of how difficult it is and the challenges that people with sigh loss face on a daily basis.”
To help Galloway’s help the local community, you can vote for the charity in the Lloyds Community Vote by tweeting #CommFund PXZ or by texting PXZ to 61119.
Below, Emma explains what Galloway’s would like to do with you help and support in the above vote.
“The Lloyds Community Vote would enable us to develop a mobile site advice centre, so rather than bringing people into our centres, we understand that people with sight loss have difficulty with transport, so it will enable us to take our resources out into the community.”
You can get more information on the vote by searching for ‘Lloyds Community Fund’ online.
Galloway’s will also be having a charity fundraiser at Deepdale ahead of Saturday’s match with Colchester United with any donations gratefully received.
So please vote now for Galloway’s!