Aston Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson has revealed he was rejected by Newcastle United as a teenager.

He told the Sunday Mercury: "I think it was when I was 14 when I went for a trial at Newcastle that I made my mind up that I really wanted to be a professional footballer.

"I never got my contract there so it made me concentrate and work even harder.

"Getting turned away by a club when you're 13 is not nice, so you're not happy. It was hard to take. But I worked hard and thought if I get that chance again I don't want to be disappointed again.

"The uncle of one of my mates used to own a pub and run a pub team so we used to go in there to borrow the nets and put them up on the old school field.

"We used to do it every night when the nights were light for two or three hours. I would come back head to toe covered in mud and my mum would have to hose us down outside!"