BOLTON Wanderers players have swapped their footballs for computer terminals and enrolled on an Information Technology course.

Computer training company Panacea, which is based at the Bolton Enterprise Centre in Washington Street, is helping a wide range of staff from the Reebok to learn the basics of IT.

At least 20 Reebok staff, including manager Sam Allardyce, players such as Jimmy Phillips, assistant manager Phil Brown, trainer Faz Page and backroom staff are getting to grips with how to log on, use a mouse and save a piece of work on a computer.

Phil Brown is especially relishing the chance to become fully computer literate having lost his own masterpiece because he did not know how to save it on a laptop.

He said: "I was writing a book of short stories about football but didn't know how to save them and the whole lot got deleted, so hopefully I can get going again now I'm doing this course.

"My 16-year-old son will be helping me as well and we've got a computer at home, so the course is of use for both work and personal interest."

Phil believes Wanderers will benefit enormously in becoming computer literate and accessing the Internet as it will help them to keep in touch with talent scouts, other teams in this country and abroad, training analysis and even how to choose their latest kits.

Panacea training co-ordinator Nigel Horsler said: "The players are showing the same commitment here as on the field and even those who already know how to use computers are learning something new."

Reebok staff are studying NVQ Level One Information Technology and attending weekly classes.