Welton Rovers may have lost out narrowly to Bath City in the Somerset Cup on Tuesday, but the Club helped the Toolstation Western League score an emphatic win in the fight against mental health issues.

The Western League have teamed up with Bath Mind to highlight the

importance of recognising the mental health challenges young footballers and young people are facing. Bath Mind have produced special posters, highlighting a variety of their support services for young people, designed to be hung in Western League changing rooms.

In addition to the posters, leaflets and other support materials have been distributed to the six Bath and North East Somerset Clubs participating in this pilot partnership. If successful, the Western League hope to extend this campaign across all forty member clubs, stretching from Wiltshire to Cornwall.

Welton Rovers Manager, Tom Smith, was joined by Western League Podcast presenter, Ian Nockolds, for a photo with the poster in the home dressing room before the match against Bath City.

Tom said: “This is a great effort by everyone involved to give young men a great platform to be able to talk to someone dedicated to listening and helping with modern day problems.

The demographic that this campaign will help could normally feel embarrassed or anxious about opening up and talking about their feelings or worries, but having this in changing rooms all around the Toolstation Western League will hopefully change that.”

Welton Rovers’ Vice Chairman, Gareth Paisey, said; “The mental health crisis that people of all ages are experiencing is incredibly upsetting, but that the stigma around talking about negative mental health is being reduced is a huge positive.

“Welton Rovers is a club that recognises the importance of speaking openly and honestly when the darkness is beginning to take hold, and we hope that being a part of this Western League campaign will further illustrate to our players and supporters that we’re here for them”.