"It became very apparent early on in the season that despite spending heavily on the pitch during last summer serious drainage work would have to take place this summer.

"Dixon's Drainage were the chosen contractor, with the plan to install a brand new 160mm main drain. This would be fed by 9 lateral drain running across the pitch.

"Having heard horror stories about what was under the pitch, work began on Monday 29th. It was very nervy watching the trencher running across the pitch on each 73m run.

"Each lateral drain is 600mm deep, back filled with drainage stone and rootzone. It was a relatively easy job with Dixon's getting all 9 drains complete in one and half days. There was a little bit of trouble found under the surface, but nothing a £170k piece of kit can't handle.

"With all drainage work complete, it was now time to do regular end of season maintenance. The pitch was over seeded with 220kg of rye grass seed, 75 ton of medium coarse sand spread, then verti drained to a depth of 12”.

"It's now my turn. The pitch will be fertilised on Tuesday afternoon, then we will get as much water on the pitch as we can.

"If all goes to plan, we will have a pitch we can rely on all season for our first season in the NWCFL Premier Division."

Mark Shuttleworth