I have a Samsung Pro815 and I am trying to take pics of football (soccer) players but cannot get really sharp / clear ones. I am pretty new at this - could anyone advise which is the best mode etc to use?

There are two possibilities: motion blur and slow focus. For the first, set your camera on Av mode ie aperture priority mode. Dial in the lowest number for aperture possible which on your camera is 4.6 on zoom. Hopefully there will be plenty of sunlight as this will help. Now the shutter speed will be as quick as possible which helps freeze the action. If you are panning (tracking through the lens) with someone running, do so smoothly, press the shutter release but continue panning like a golf swing .. always follow through. Finally slow focus: this is the hardest to deal with as its a built in function of your camera. Try to prefocus if you have to. You do this by picking sometime at the same distance as the person you will want to take a photo of and pressing the shutter release half way. Once the person is now in the shot, press all the way. This is not ideal as the object you lock focus on may not have the same light as the person so exposure may be off and also with the aperture wide open, there is limited depth of field (imagine three people standing behind each other, the lower the aperture number, the less of the three will be in focus, the higher then all 3 will be in focus). If two people are tackling then its possible only one will be in focus. Hope this was clear enough for you. If you have a photo with the problem, show us and maybe we can determine the exact problem. Good luck.

Thanks for that. I will be in touch when I have taken more pictures.
How will I send you a jpeg if I need to?

Just post it on the site here. Thats what its for. you can leave a msg here that you have posted it and people can take a look.

I have placed two pics in the Gallery - Sports Action. I did what you suggested (to the best of my ability) and this is the result. The "camera shake" icon does show nearly all of the time. Have I bought a "pig in a poke!!"
The Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom I had before took clearer pictures than this but the time delay was bad. The time delay on this isnt too bad but how can I get clearer pics.