Weather holds up Saddlers

Torrential downpours in the early summer have set back drainage work on the pitches at the Broad Lane Pavilion. And chairman Jeff Bonser now fears that the opening of the new facility, scheduled for this autumn, might have to be put back.

"I think the pavilion will be finished on time so the indoor facilities should all be there by when we predicted," he said.

"Unfortunately the weather has set things back on the pitches a bit so there is a chance there could be a delay there.

"We have had so much rain, a lot of it heavy rain, in the last few weeks that the company that is doing work is behind schedule on all the jobs they've got on, which is understandable.

"It's the type of work that they really can't do when things are as wet as they have been, and we can't do anything else on the pitches until we have got the drainage right.

"So we are in the lap of the gods in terms of when they can get in to do that work.

"They really can't get on there and do a great deal until we have two or three weeks of clear weather.

"It's frustrating, but there is really nothing anyone can do."

Saddlers were hoping to move to the new facility, which is a former cricket ground, by mid-September.

But they may now have to persist with their current site in Delves Green Road for longer than expected.

When it opens the Broad Lane site will be the first training ground to be owned by the club. The first team and youth teams will move there from the Banks's Stadium except on matchdays.

Facilities will include changing rooms and a gym, while there will be room for up to three football pitches, which will have the same dimensions as the playing area at Bescot.