Star-struck pupils meet Stoke City heroes (VIDEO)

A GROUP of schoolchildren have come face-to-face with their Stoke City heroes.

The youngsters from Mill Hill Primary School, in Tunstall, got autographs and had their photographs taken with first-team players at the club's Michelin training ground yesterday.

The pupils met players including midfielder Salif Diao, club record signing forward Dave Kitson and captain Andy Griffin, but saved the biggest cheer of the day for when they got to meet star striker Ricardo Fuller.

After meeting their heroes, the children were given the chance to watch the players put through their paces on the training ground, ahead of their fixture against Fulham at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.

The children, aged between five and nine, were picked out to meet the players by Stoke-on-Trent City Council after contributing to a badge designing scheme at the school.

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And all five pupils said meeting the players was a day they would never forget.

Hayden McCormick, aged eight, said: "It's been great to meet all the players, especially Ricardo Fuller because he is my favourite.

"The players seem bigger than they do on the television."

Seven-year-old Ryan Hewitt added: "It's been dead good seeing the players because we would have been having a spelling test at school.

"I've got lots of autographs which I'll be showing to all of my friends."

The pupils will now look forward to a tour of the club's stadium and Stoke City's match against Fulham which they will watch from the comfort of a corporate box, courtesy of West Midlands-based consultancy and software business Winning Moves.

Danielle Bennett, marketing executive at Winning Moves, said: "As a company we do a lot of work with communities and businesses across the country to help them grow and prosper.

"As a result of this work we decided to use our corporate box at Stoke City to give five local children an extra special Christmas present.

"We are delighted with the project that Stoke-on-Trent City Council put us in contact with and are really excited to see the children's faces when they meet the team and watch the match.

"It's a really worthwhile project and it's just nice to give something back to our local community, especially at this time of year."

Steve Buxton, head of public relations at Stoke City, said: "We're delighted to give these children the opportunity to meet our players. It's not often that people have the chance to meet Premier League players, but we're only too happy to make sure these children have a week to remember."