YOUTH team coach Paul Bodin urged the Swindon youngsters that were not offered professional contracts yesterday to look to former Town striker Charlie Austin as an example that their career in the game is not necessarily over.

The club decided to give Matt Clark and Abdul Said the opportunity to join the first team squad for the 2011/12 season, but five other second-year scholars were not offered deals; Seb Broomfield, Dan Evans, Josh Parsons, James Richards and Tom Ryan.

Bodin, though, was keen to stress that a career in football is not necessarily over for those who did not make it.

Austin was released by Reading as a youngster, but after impressing in non-league football for the likes of Thatcham Town and Poole Town, the stiker was snapped up by Town two years ago.

“In the realities of football we know they are not all going to make it,” Bodin told the Advertiser.

“If they don’t quite make it as players they might have to drop into non league football, where the Charlie Austins of the world are a great example for the lads who don’t get taken on.”

Town boss Paul Hart, who has past experience of working with youth at Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, acknowledged that this is a difficult time for the players who are let go.

“It is very hard,” he said. “I speak to players as they come in and there is an entry strategy and an exit strategy.

“To deliver the news to the boys that are not being kept on is extremely difficult, and it is more difficult for them to take.

“Hopefully we will be able to help them on the way out.”