Head groundsman Trevor Wilkin reckons the Ewood Park surface was as good last season as it has ever been in his 40-plus years working at the club.

The club invested in a new “stitch pitch” last summer and it remained in good nick throughout the campaign despite 36 matches between the men and women’s teams and a barrage of bad weather at times.

Wilkin, who has worked at Rovers since 1982, was pleased with how the surface held up and had lots of positive feedback.

“I think without a doubt it was certainly the best pitch that I’ve ever worked on as long as I’ve been here and next season will be my 43rd,” he told the club website.

“Obviously, we invested heavily last summer. It wasn’t a brand new pitch, which costs upwards of £2million, but we did the next best thing, which was to stitch it at a fraction of the price.

“We knew it would be a quick fix until we can afford to do the full reconstruction, but the results are there for everyone to see.

“I think anybody that came last season would be quietly surprised just how good it was, considering how wet a winter we had, so I think it was money well spent.

“We had upwards of 40 games on it last season, which is an incredible amount for us on an aging pitch. It looked well and it played well all season, and we had a lot of good comments about it so it has paid off.”   

Wilkin is now working to make sure the pitch is pristine for the start of next season, which kicks off on the weekend of August 10.

“This summer is very little compared to last summer,” he explained. “All the hard work was done last summer.

“This season, all we are doing is taking 20mm off which is just the green vegetation, down to the stitching, then we have injected 30 tonnes of sand directly into the pitch, with a new machine, and then top-dressed with another 30 tonnes, so 60 tonnes in total.

“We will then seed it, brush it and Verti-Drain it, then we will be good to go. We have also invested in a couple of new boilers for the undersoil heating and all the pitches down at the training ground are being re-done as well, so I think we are looking good.”