Visitors to Eccleshall will see a number of changes since league football was brought to a halt by the Coronavirus pandemic back in late October last year. The club was successful in securing a grant of £11,000 from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to replace the old dugouts with two new twelve-seater ones together with the required groundworks to site them. Additionally, hard standing is to be added in the existing stand at the Chester Road end of the ground.
The old, covered spectator stand, fondly known as ‘The Shed’ which had been a fixture at the ground for almost forty years, had to be demolished for safety reasons. A lot of hard work over the last few weeks by committee members led by Chairman Neil Washington and Bill Grinham has seen this replaced by a new structure which gives Pershall Park a completely fresh appearance for visitors coming through the gate. Add to this the painting of the fence panels around the ground, the demolition and replacement of the entrance pay boxes, pitch preparation, the smartening up of the ground entrance, and general cleaning and tidying up will ensure that the spectator match day experience will be greatly improved.

The work is ongoing and, whilst it may not all be completed when the pre-season friendlies get underway on Tuesday evening, it is hoped that the bulk of the improvements will be in place by the time The Eagles host their first home league match – a local derby against league newcomers Brocton.
The club is grateful for the efforts of all who have played their part in the preparation work which has taken place – even team manager Dave Dale turned his hand to demolishing one of the pay boxes and laying the base for the new one!

With all of this in place, we now look forward to seeing the team-building efforts of our management to complement the ground improvements. It’s now full steam ahead for Saturday 31. July.

Photo shows the new stand and dugouts at Pershall Park.