The club's supporters are revelling in the club's promotion twice in two years from Blue Square Premier to League Two and now League One, and head groundsman Clive Pring wanted a ground to match.

Speedcut Contractors of Oxford was drafted in to carry out work to improve the site's drainage.

Pring said: "The training ground is on similar clay soil to the main St James Park stadium and needs to be well drained for all-year-round training use by the main team, the under-18s and for nine- to 16-year-olds using this as our centre of excellence."

Speedcut contracts manager Kevin Smith said a team of four staff worked on the site for around two weeks to complete the work. "We installed main drainage on the training ground at 5m centres, sandbanding at 250mm centres and sandslitting at 2m intervals," he added.

The Exeter training ground, known as the Cat & Fiddle Ground because of the nearby pub, has been in use for the past 30 years.

Pring added: "We have a lot of demands on the ground, but the constant maintenance involves plenty of aeration and keeping the soil structure open.

"The club promotion has been a major lift for everyone and I'm really pleased with the renovations."

 

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