Gloucester City are laying down the turf at their New Meadow Park home today, thirteen years after being driven out by flooding when the River Severn burst its banks.
The National League North's Tigers are rolling out the final turf layer on their state-of-the-art 3G pitch after years spent ground-sharing at Forest Green Rovers, Cirencester Town, Cheltenham Town and Evesham United.
Built on the same site as the old one but 10 feet higher up to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic flooding of July 2007 when floodwater lapped at the top of the crossbars, officials expect the stadium to get the green light for the new season following a final ground-grading inspection this month.
Gloucester City's co-chairmen Alex Petheram and Eamonn McGurk told GloucestershireLive on Tuesday that the laying of the huge strips – pre-sewn with all the pitch markings – was a huge occasion as manager James Rowe gets his squad back for pre-season training.
The green green grass of home! pic.twitter.com/BCg6ax5CYX
— Gloucester City AFC (@GCAFCofficial) August 11, 2020
Petheram's firm Soldi has provided a lot of the building expertise for the construction and he said: “I'm delighted that the “grass” has started today.
“It's a massive day for the club and for Eamonn and myself personally. We're in touching distance now. We are very proud to say Gloucester City AFC are back home in Gloucester.”
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Images courtesy of The Non-League Paper & Gloucester City AFC/Alex Petheram
