The sleepy south-west Oxfordshire town of Faringdon is proving to be the unlikely source of footballing talent for a club more than 12,000 miles away.

Gary Sutton became the third player from Faringdon to fly over to New Zealand to play for Wanganui City in the north island's Central Federation League.

He has joined Damian Francis and Darryl Pugh, who flew over two months ago.

As well as playing football, the three, all of them aged about 20, are travelling around to see as much of the country as they can.

Francis and Pugh, who have played for both Oxfordshire and for the North Berks representative side, helped Wanganui City to some immediate results, and the manager of Wanganui believes Sutton, who has had trials with Stoke City, Luton and Watford, will do the same.

"The idea is to freshen them up a bit for when they come back to play for Faringdon Town next season," said Damian's father, Steve Francis.

"They had to pay for their own air fares over there but Wanganu are a semi-professional club so they have to do two full days' training, and they've given them a flat and found them a couple of days' work.

"We're hoping it will lead to a special relationship between the clubs and maybe some of their best young players might want to come over to play for Faringdon in a similar arrangement."