SWINDON Town’s latest recruits have been putting in hours of hard work at the County Ground to shed hundreds of pounds ahead of a tournament in Scotland this summer.

A glut of overweight football enthusiasts were picked up by Town over the Christmas period to form a new club squad as part of an experiment honed in the Scottish Premier League.

Sharper-eyed passers-by will have seen the new unit putting in the hard yards at the County Ground every Thursday night for the past nine weeks ahead of their debuts in Falkirk this June.

But supporters need not fret, Mark Cooper has not splashed the cash to land this burly band of losers, weight losers that is.

A new partnership between the club, Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust (FITC) and Swindon Borough Council’s public health team has masterminded a new slimming regime for football fans - who have a weekly fixture with the weighing scales.

Football Fans in Training was spotted at a host of elite Scottish clubs by council health workers who pushed to roll it out in Swindon, which has become the first location in England to do so.

“It’s been fantastic. There have been some really, really good results,” said Shane Hewlett, football development officer with FITC.

“It was imperative we got these guys into the football ground because none of them want to access something like Slimming World.

“Some of them were heart attacks waiting to happen. The council’s public health team is actually trying to be proactive rather than reactive in this town.”

There are three weeks remaining in a 12-week programme, after which the 28 men left on the course will travel to Falkirk, where they will take part in a tournament with the sister initiatives north of the border.

The course is open to fans over 35 with a 38-inch waistline or larger, who are put through their paces as a team in weekly sessions.

“Men want to be associated with a football club,” said Shane. “They feel like they are part of the infrastructure of the club. They have been coming to the club since they were young children.”

This connection with the heart of the town’s club has proved crucial in keeping the men on the course, with only two dropouts in the nine weeks so far.

Shane said none of them want to feel as though they are letting their club down, one of those who has kept at it for the duration and impressed most, is marketing manager Stephen Daniels.

Stephen, 35, of Alfred Street, has shredded 18kg from his frame in just nine weeks in dropping from 127kg to 109kg.

He was put forward for the course by his wife, who herself works in the council’s public health department.

A health scare after a blood pressure reading soared off the chart gave Stephen the impetus to sign up, for fear of not living long enough to see his seven and five-year-old children grow up.

“It’s completely changed my life, I couldn’t overstate that,” he said. “I have started a creative writing class and begun writing poetry.

“It’s made me feel like the person I used to be - much more confident. When I was a teenager I was chasing goals and I’m back there.

“You spend years in purgatory. It drags you down. You’re putting on weight, becoming less able to go and exercise. It becomes cumulative.”

For more information on the course, or joining a future edition in September, visit www.stfitc.co.uk.