Football and golf have always mixed pretty well.

Any number of football stars of yesteryear are very keen golfers – Alan Shearer, Alan Hansen and Jamie Redknapp to name but three – while of the current crop, Liverpool’s James Milner is known to be pretty handy with a nine-iron.

It works the other way too, with Ian Poulter a big Arsenal fan and Lee Westwood a very keen supporter of all things Nottingham Forest.

Adrian Stalley wouldn’t claim to be as good at golf or football as the aforementioned alumni – even though he plays off a highly respectable eight in the sport made famous by Jack Nicklaus and the like – but he is using one sport to support the other at a big fundraising day on Saturday.

The 46-year-old is holding a golf day at the club where he is a member – Brickhampton Court – and is hoping to raise “in excess of £500” for the Gloucester Primary Schools’ Football Association.

Stalley, a businessman who lives in Hucclecote with his wife Jenni and teenage sons Bradley and Lewis, has played and been involved in both sports for many years – and back in the day he was very well known as a pool player in and around Cheltenham.

These days it is football that plays a big part in his life and particularly the Gloucester Primary Schools’ Football Association for whom he has been head coach for four of the past five years.

And it is certainly a very impressive set-up because they run a comprehensive inter-school football programme for under-11s down and four district teams – two for the under-11 boys, an under-10 development boys’ team and an under-11 girls’ team.

As you’d expect, the district teams are made up of the better players from around the schools, although Stalley adds: “Attitude is everything to us; it is just as important as footballing ability.”

It’s a pretty good gig for the players to get involved in because as well as playing games week in, week out at places as far flung as Plymouth, Nottingham and St Albans and anywhere in between, 22 of the youngsters also get to play in the excellent England Schoolboys’ Festival of Football in Jersey, an annual event that has been graced in the past by the likes of John Terry, Harry Kane and Theo Walcott in their younger days.

Stalley was in Jersey for this year’s seven-day tournament when he spoke to The Local Answer last week and he said: “It’s a fantastic real-life experience for the youngsters.

“It’s the culmination of the season. But it’s not just the football, they get the chance to go away without their parents and experience new things.

“We take them to some of the fantastic beaches, they visit the island’s places of interest and they have to keep a diary.”

The trip doesn’t come cheap, of course, and that’s where Stalley’s golf day comes in.

“The cost of the whole trip is about £11,000,” said Stalley. “There are six coaches, but we all pay for ourselves.

“The players’ families pay £295 each, the schools make a contribution and we look to raise the rest ourselves which is about £5,000 to £6,000. My golf day at Brickhampton is just one of a series of fundraisers that we organise.”

And a very worthy cause it is too, because the Gloucester Primary Schools’ Football Association have been going since 1957, although they didn’t play their first game outside the county until 1986.

That was in Oxfordshire and Stalley added: “Playing in goal for us that day was Phil Greening who went on to play rugby for Gloucester and England!”

And more recently another player who has come through the Gloucester Schools’ football programme is Cheltenham Town’s impressive 18-year-old forward George Lloyd. Meanwhile, Gloucester City’s appearance record holder, Tom Webb, is a former captain.

“George played for us in 2011,” said Stalley. “He played in the same side as my son Bradley. Tom played back in 1994/95, but both came to Jersey.’

Stalley’s other son Lewis, now 14, also played for Gloucester Schools and was in fact captain three years ago.

That was the season that Stalley senior stood down as head coach so there would be no conflict of interest.

These days young Lewis is playing county golf while Bradley is playing a decent level of football at Evesham United where he is captain of their under-18s.

So how did Stalley senior land such an important role with the Gloucester Primary Schools’ Football Association?

“I’d been coaching for 10 years at Hucclecote,” he said. “Six years ago Keith Steadman, who is chairman of the association, asked me if I’d like to help out and it’s gone on from there. I have known Bob Owen, who is secretary of the association, for many years too, and he’s a wonderful man.”

Those sentiments are echoed by many because Owen has been the heartbeat of the Gloucester Primary Schools’ Football Association for many, many years.

He’s got a very good right-hand man in Adrian Stalley, of course, and his golf day, which will involve something like 50 players and tees off at 2pm, deserves all the support it can get.

It’s a big organisation with a big programme and there’s a lot of money that needs to be raised. Stalley’s golf day will make a big contribution towards that figure and deserves all the support it can get.