Groundsman Phil Collinson and his team were down at Bowlee on Thursday afternoon, treating Dale's future training pitch. He spoke to the website about how the pitch is progressing, and when the players should be able to use it.

"There was obviously a problem last season with the pitch here, in that it wasn't suitable for training on. We've been looking at rectifying that since then, and with the magnificent help of the trust we've managed to put £4,000 worth of sand on the pitch to help with drainage and levelling it out in order to get a surface worthy of training on."

"The players go out to Spain on Sunday, and by the time they get back the pitch should be ready for them to train on. Hopefully Keith Hill and the lads will be happy with it so they can have a permanent place to train. We'll be maintaining it, and hopefully the lads don't overuse it! It will be great for the club to have somewhere exclusive to them, for the first time, where they can train."

With the players looking for somewhere settled to train maintaining the pitch at Bowlee will be crucial. Phil told us how he and his team will go about doing this, and how he hopes it will benefit the club.

"The club bought the verti-drainer last year, which we can use here as well to help maintain it. It's tough as we don't have the irrigation at Bowlee like we do at Spotland, but we'll still be treating it in very much the same manner with regards to fertilising it. We'll be cutting it twice a week, and all-in-all it has to be beneficial for the football club to have somewhere to train, and hopefully it will be a step forward for the club as a whole."

Our Bowlee Appeal is still on running, and you can donate to this fantastic cause by clicking here - any donations would be very well received.