“The work has been nothing less than marvellous…”

Manager Danny Grainger says supporters ‘stepped-up’ over the summer to help Borough Park be ready for the coming 2019-20 season.

The Reds boss, who takes charge of his first home match tomorrow, spoke at the open evening last night to discuss the fans’ volunteer work, meeting supporters and the preparations for Pickering Town.

It’s what we’ve missed during pre-season, being able to get a game on at home and let the fans see what we’re about.

It was nice to have all of the fans, reserve team, Ladies team and academy teams come down to see things and feel part of it.

There’s been valuable volunteer work over the past few weeks to ensure the stadium is ready for Saturday’s Northern Premier League campaign opener and Grainger reiterated, after mentioning it in his Q&A earlier in the night, how pleasing the work is.

When the new stadium fell through, we were left in limbo a bit and that’s when we needed our fans to step-up and they have. 

They’ve really gone to town. Tidying up the stadium, painting walls, taking weeds out – they’ve done everything.

The work has been nothing less than marvellous. It’s great for us to see and hopefully, we can do the business on the pitch for them.

Saturday afternoon will be a special moment in the former Carlisle United captain’s career, sitting in the hot seat for the first time during an official game.

Danny Granger gleefully said:

I honestly can’t wait, I’ve always been like a kid at Christmas the night before a game, but there’ll be a few more nerves because it’s obviously my first time as a manager.

We’ve prepared well and I’m sure the boys know their roles, I’m more than confident in them.

Regarding team news for tomorrow, the manager only has two injured absentees with a squad eagerly awaiting the starting XI being revealed.

We’re missing Sam Smith with an ankle injury and Owen Bell for personal reasons but apart from that, we’re more or less on a full clean bill of health.

There’ll be a couple of lads who’ll disappointed on Saturday morning when we name the team but that’s what we need.

There’s seven weeks ahead of Saturday, Tuesday and we need everyone to be ready – we will use everybody over the next seven weeks.

Kick-off at Borough Park tomorrow is at 3pm, so get down there and see the stadium for yourself!