Recently by Mat Kendrick

I'VE promised former Villa defender Earl Barrett I'd give him a plug for this commendable event in Brum on Tuesday night encouraging ethnic minority groups to work in the football industry.

So if it applies and appeals to you, please get in touch with him asap and get along.

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FORMER Aston Villa star Earl Barrett will be hosting a free session aimed at getting ethnic minority groups into the football industry in Edgbaston next week.

Earl, who now works as ambassador for the Kick it Out campaign to rid football of racism, will be at the Centennial Centre from 6pm to 9pm on Tuesday.

He will be joined by fellow Villa oldboy Mark Walters, West Bromwich Albion legend Brendon Batson and ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Bob Hazell.

Also on the panel will be Lincoln Moses, who is the manager of Britain's first black-led football club, Continental Star FC.

The event for aspiring coaches, managers and administration staff is part of Kick It Out's 'Leading the Game' series looking at pathways into the football industry for under-represented groups.

Representatives from Birmingham County FA will be there and refreshments will also be provided.

There are limited places so anybody interested in attending should email Earl Barrett on earl@kickitout.org or call 020 7684 4884.

RECITING the names of heroes in a half-shell Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael is the closest I can get to total recall. Whoops, that's turtle recall isn't it, sorry!

But a kid from Walsall, I forget his name, has scooped a prestigious title by remembering a remarkable range of facts and figures.

The young schoolboy - his age has slipped my mind - was able to memorise and recall a long list of trivia about London Zoo, a selection of 27 unrelated objects, 40 unknown faces and a sequence of 38 random numbers.

And to think some Villa fans can't even cast their minds back to when Gabby Agbonlahor was a Holte End hero, all of four short weeks ago.

Short memories indeed.