Steve Pitman is a film extra but he’s been playing a starring role at Southside Star for the best part of two decades.

The 64-year-old is director of football for their youth section, a section that has 42 teams and about 600 players.

Those numbers are very impressive and the retired IT consultant’s career as a film extra is pretty impressive too.

“I’ve been in Wolf Hall, Rivals, Casualty and Young Sherlock,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I’m like Ricky Gervais in Extras, I’m always trying to get my face in front of a camera!”

Judging by some of the programmes he’s been in he’s been quite successful, too, while his many roles in football have certainly proved very successful.

So how did he get involved with Southside?

“I took my son Andrew to the club in 2002 when he was six,” said Pitman, a former Sunday league player and manager.

“I was just a parent, I didn’t want to get too involved. I’d managed a Sunday league side and I didn’t want the hassle.”

But he did get involved, although not until 2005.

“I was asked if I’d coach an under-10s third team which the club wanted to set up,” he said. “They’d got too many players for two teams.”

Pitman’s son was one of the players earmarked for the third team and Pitman continued: “I was concerned we may lose most weeks, so I thought, ‘How am I going to keep them all interested?’”

But keep them all interested he did because, supported by his long-time assistant John Jones, he took them on trips to Cheltenham Town, the Millennium Stadium and the pantomime.

He also gave them chocolate on matchdays, Easter eggs and Selection boxes, as well as introducing man-of-the-match awards, all things that are now the norm at Southside.

“Football is supposed to be fun, a place you want to be,” said Pitman.

“We don’t want any coaching from parents and we don’t want any shouting at the referee.

“We call it the Southside Way. Our ethos is zero criticism.”

It’s an ethos that should be applauded and it certainly worked for Pitman’s team back in the day.

“I think we won one point from under-11 to under-13s,” he said. “Then in the under-14s we won three games.

“In the under-15s we won six games and in the last game of the season we drew with the top of the league, a game we should have won.

“I said that next season our target was to win the league, which everyone laughed at, but we did, it was real Roy of the Rovers stuff.

“We finished level at the top and needed a play-off to win the division, we won the game 1-0 with a screamer from 30 yards in the 90^th minute.”

That goal was scored by Ollie Potter and he, like many others, will have many special memories growing up at the club.

And those memories are now being made by a new generation of youngsters with Pitman saying: “We’re increasing at a rate of five teams a year.”

Pitman, a dad of two who lives in Cheltenham with his wife Penny, remains very hands-on.

He is the club’s child welfare officer and he also coaches the club’s Cubs, which are made up of more than 120 youngsters in reception up to year 3.

That’s three hours every weekend from 9am to noon, 44 weeks a year at Bournside School.

“I love kids, I love seeing the enjoyment on their faces,” he said. “The kids are just excited to play football.”