AN AYR United youth football coach has spoken about how his troubled childhood is helping  the troubles of his childhood, and how it helps him guide the next generation of young players.

Tony Bryson, lead under-16 coach at the Ayr United Football Academy, and the club's first team data analyst, told the BBC's Scottish football programme, A View From The Terrace, about his experiences as a youngster and how they've shaped his coaching career.

In the five-minute segment, Tony said: "I was about ten or eleven and we were asked to write a story about a thing that we had, and I didn't have anything to write about, so I just made something up.

"It was about one of the old Mitre footballs that were bright yellow. I think I seen it in a shop or something so I just made it up that I had one of them and started telling a story about it.

"I got into football because I wanted to be the first team manager at Ayr -  but once you start to see the impact you can have on people that are maybe dealing with the same types of things that I had to deal with, that becomes a big driver.

"Growing up in Ayr there wasn't an awful lot to do.

"My childhood was quite unsettled. My mum was very young when she had me.

"We moved into 16 different accomodations in the space of two or three years. We saw a lot of violence, drug use, petty crime to fuel drug use. I didn't know any different; that was just the way it was."

After news of his mother's admission to rehab, Tony was worried that he would soon be taken into social care.

"My gran stopped me from getting taken into care," he continued.

"If it wasn't for my gran, I don't know where I would be. I don't think I'd be where I am now. 

"I use my background situation and the things I've faced growing up as a way to reassure young people that it will be all right.

"You can see how somebody conducts themselves and how somebody behaves, and if something is off, the best thing to do is to talk to the young peson about it.

"There is always someone there who wants to help you. It could be a staff member at school, could be a family member, could be a coach.

"Role models can really change the path for young people that come from the background that I come from.

"Sometimes I really struggle with what has come before. Sometimes I wake up at night after having had dreams about it.

"But I know that the next day there is something I can my teeth stuck into."