With the excitement of the dramatic finale to the season still alive around the club the business of building the squad for a first season in the National League is underway – look out for further news of player signings soon.

Meanwhile arrangements off the field are also well underway also as is important work to repair and prepare the St James Park pitch after a long season. It is rightly considered among the best playing surfaces but only investment and hard work maintains it to that standard. We thought that supporters would appreciate a detailed and technical summary of the works that have been carried out to produce a top quality playing surface for the new season. So if you know your seed from your sand and scarification from top dressing then this article is for you!

Just four days after our historic final day win intensive work began on the pitch with a first pre-season fixture in early July already in mind. The club decided this year to work with Coventry-based Lakeside Grounds Maintenance for the vital end of season renovations on the pitch.

This work usually consists of a mixture of deep aeration, scarifying three ways, a heavy top-dress followed by seed and fertiliser. The club and contractor decided this year to bring forward the deep aeration work by around eight weeks. This was due to a troublesome area on one of the wings which was worn and getting thin and which had been sitting wet for a while and causing issues. This work helped to alleviate the problem and to get the excess moisture through the soil profile. This work got the pitch through to the end of the season without any more major issues. It was accomplished by a machine punching 18mm diameter and 9 inch deep holes into the ground. Over time this will also help relieve any soil compaction and help grass roots get deeper.

So this meant a heavy three-way scarification was the first job immediately after the league-winning game against Farsley as thankfully play-off games were not needed this time around! Scarification is a process where vertical blades reach down up to 30mm beneath the surface to remove organic matter which builds up over the season. This organic matter can hold moisture in the surface making the surface soft and liable to cut up during games. This process removed tonnes of dead matter.

After this ninety tonnes of sand were added to the pitch. We focused on getting a large percentage of this on the more troublesome areas that had emerged during the season including the wings and goal areas. Adding this sand to the pitch will help water move freely through the pitch and also help create a smoother surface for good ball roll. The sand was put on evenly by a tractor-trailed sand spreading machine with a capacity of around 4 tonnes at a time!

After this the whole pitch was seeded by a machine that using rotating discs to create grooves in the soil at around 3-4mm depth where seeds are then deposited and covered. This gives the seed the best chance for a quick germination. Twelve bags of R140 seed from Origin Amenity was applied. This is a high quality seed as used at many Premier League clubs and throughout the EFL. It contains tetraploid technology - this is a seed which contains four chromosomes instead of the standard two which means a much faster germination and quicker recovery from the wear and tear that a football pitch gets.

After this twelve bags of C-Complex 14-2-5 fertiliser was added. This contains fast-acting nitrogen which will help the seed to germinate and is also slow release acting over a 6-8 week period. During this period liquid fertilisers will be added to help growth and bio-stimulants and seaweeds will also be added to help root depth and grass health.

The club extends its thanks to Lakeside Grounds Maintenance for the great work they have done and to the club in-house team of Keith, Pete and Dave for their work in organising these works and the on-going works on the pitch, which is a continuing job that never ends!

Look out for updates on how the pitch is progressing and getting the club ready for our debut in the National League. And all this during the driest spring for 50 years!