CHARLTON Athletic's community work received a royal seal of approval on Friday when Prince William visited the training ground to see the scheme in action.

But the Prince's football skills did not receive the same level of approval, with cries of "dogdy keeper" directed his way as he joined children on a half-term coaching course for a penalty shoot out at the Addicks' Sparrows Lane ground.

The Prince is the new president-designate of the Football Association and wanted to see for himself the excellent work carried out by the club's community scheme, which is sponsored by the Kent Messenger Group's Bexley Extra.

He joined more than 100 youngsters from South London for some coaching before being put through his paces with the first team squad under the watchful eye of manager Alan Curbishley.

The Prince, who initially trained in his Eton house colours, was presented with a personalised Charlton shirt, with "Wales. W" on the back.

Afterwards he said: "After that, it seems I'm not as fit as I thought I was. The community work here is just awesome. Everyone working here is just fascinating - they do such a great job.

"You can really see that the kids love it; they've been having a really good time and been laughing at me looking like a prat."

Asked for his views on Charlton's performance in the Premiership so far this season, the Aston Villa-supporting Prince replied: "They're not as good as Villa...Only joking. Where's Alan? He'll kill me."

* For more pictures and reports from the Prince's visit, see this week's Bexley Extra.