With close season pitch renovation works well under way at The OnSite Group Stadium and new seed in the ground, water was the key element needed to grow a successful playing surface for the 2024-25 campaign.

And The Royals’ grounds team have been blessed with lots of spells of heavy rain over many days this week - so much so that the new grass is already starting to poke up out of the ground.

It has certainly put a smile on the face of head groundsman Charlie Searle and the pitch maintenance team who work tirelessly throughout the season to make the playing surface the very best it can be.

That hard work was rewarded when the close season works got under way. The pitch was scarified as part of the planned schedule of works and in past season’s it has been left looking brown and bare due to the amount of grass removed during this process.

However, due to the improvements made to the playing surface, much less grass was removed this time and the pitch retained plenty of greenery when the scarifying process was completed in recent weeks.

The next task Charlie undertook was to dig 32 small holes in the areas slowest to drain water away during the 2023-24 campaign. He then used these to create a series of mini soakaways which will help to allow surface water to drain away more quickly from the more problematic areas of the pitch during wetter weather.

The work across the whole playing surface then continued, with six tonnes of sand spread across it and the pitch was then verti drained as well.

This was followed by seeding and then feeding the grass, with more close detail included in the goalmouths, which were hand seeded and then covered with germination netting.

With the weather gods being extremely kind since these works were all completed and smiling down - well pouring down really - on The OnSite Group Stadium, the signs are good that the work of the grounds team will prove to be pitch perfect when the season gets under way in late July.