ASHTON UNITED have thanked supporters for helping their Hurst Cross home achieve the grade C needed to host football at Step 3.
The Evo-Stik NPL Premier club, currently eighth in the table, were visited by the FA and representatives of the League's management committee recently and told they had work to do.
Grounds are looked into at least once every three years to ensure they continue to be up to scratch and United's Hurst Cross had a number of issues.
However, under the stewardship of Andrew Evans and Andrew Finnigan and with the much appreciated help of supporters such as Dave Nolan and Brian Gee, all the work – including a new row of seating at the front of the main stand – has been completed.
Failure to maintain ground grade C standards can ultimately lead to forced relegation or even withdrawal of a club's licence to trade.
However, United have now been granted the ground grading certificate and director John Milne said: “Competing at the standard we do is not simply a case of finding resources for the first team. We have to maintain the infrastructure of the club too and specifically our home stadium.
“Getting the balance of finance between the two is vitally important but the burden is made easier throught the time and effort committed to the club by our volunteers.
“Achieving the requisite grading is entirely down to their efforts and I would like to say a huge thanks on behalf of the directors.”
