Forest Green Rovers Groundsman, Nick Johnstone, has provided an updated on the surface at The Bolt New Lawn following the conclusion of the 2022/23 season.

Renovations are well underway on the pitch, with work beginning on it shortly after our final home game of the campaign against Oxford United last month.

Johnstone said: "We've taken the top off, stripped all the grass away, removed a build up organic matter and got rid of any bobbles that have appeared over the course of the season.

"We've spread 120 tonnes of sand and mixed that into the surface, before levelling it off to get a flat, true surface.

"We've also had some drainage work done, because we had a couple of wet spots on the pitch last season, so we've targeted them to try and improve it. We're currently on track - it's been a good start.

"The grass is coming through pretty quickly, so it's now up to us to put in the hard work. We'll bring the pitch on with our organic nutrition programme and we'll start cutting it in a couple of weeks.

"You'll start to see the grass thickening out after four or five weeks, the gaps will start to fill out and we'll be cutting it every day. We'll then start to put patterns onto the pitch and mark it out closer to our first pre-season friendly.

"The soil that was stripped off the pitch from last season is still good soil, full of nutrition. We've donated that to Tetbury Town Football Club, who are using it on their site to repair their pitch.

"That's really good because it's not going to waste and somebody is making good use of the soil. It helps them out and it helps us out as we're not just wasting it."

You can watch the full interview with Nick, here.