'Great investment' - Seven-figure Preston North End plans hailed after 'horrendous' few years
Work on a new pitch at Deepdale has been confirmed
Preston North End’s new pitch will be ‘so much better for everyone’ says head groundsman, Pete Ashworth.
Last week, the Lilywhites confirmed that work is to begin on the ‘largest refurbishment in 30 years’. The seven-figure investment on a hybrid-stitched GreenMaster pitch and its infrastructure has been described as a ‘complete modern renovation’. After a challenging couple of years, Ashworth is over the moon with the news.
"Hopefully, come the end of July we will have a perfect pitch," Ashworth told iFollow PNE. "It is massive. You see the lads we get on loan from Premier League clubs, they are all being brought up on these hybrid pitch and we couldn't provide that.
“They will notice the difference straight away. Just getting that improvement will, hopefully, start to attract players from top academies or Premier League clubs - and they'll want to sign for us because we've got one of the best pitches in the league.
“Just getting that stability with the hybrid stitching, it will make the players trust the surface more. They will have more faith in it, the ball will roll smoother and it will just be so much better for everyone.
“Everyone has seen how it has gone the last two or three winters. It has been horrendous really. It has been hard work.. We've probably done more work than we've ever done on the pitch and we were not getting the results we'd want, in terms of how it looked and played.
“Once the undersoil heating is up and running, hopefully we can switch that on at times. It is not a cheap thing to run but we can, hopefully, get recovery and growth. We will keep grass longer and healthier, so everyone should benefit. It is a great investment.”