Cobblers splash out on upgrading training pitches at Moulton College

Cobblers have invested £75,000 on improving and upgrading the training pitches at Moulton College.

Town were not able to work on the pitches either at Moulton College nor the PTS Academy Stadium last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But with the season ending as scheduled on Sunday, they will invest time and money on pitches at both sites ready for next season.

"So much of it has been COVID-related and we can't forget that because it impacted the training pitches at Moulton," said chairman Kelvin Thomas. "But it's an area we have now addressed.

"We have just spent £75,000 on improving the pitches at Moulton for next season so those pitches will be ready and the stadium will be used as it should be - we won't be training at the ground. I think with less training on it the pitch will be better anyway and we'll do our normal work on it as well.

"James (Whiting) is also working on a dressing room solution up at Moulton as well. That might not be this summer but improving all of that is important.

"But that wasn't an investment issue, it was a COVID-related issue and we couldn't get those pitches ready."

Whiting added: "Work will start on the stadium pitch next week and we are investing heavily in some brand new training pitches at Moulton.

"Paul Knowles and his team have been working on these for the last few months and they will be ready for the start of pre-season and that will hugely improve the facilities the first-team have to work with.

"As Kelvin mentioned, it's been a COVID issue. You only have to look across football and even into the Premier League to see that a lot of pitches have been in a sorry state this season and that's down to the time scales and the short window we had last summer.

"We weren't able to do the renovation projects due to the time scales and that did have an impact, but we will do them this summer."