IMPROVEMENTS of more than £1,000 to Botley Boys and Girls Football Club’s pitches could put an end to waterlogged pitches and sulking eight-year-olds.

The club, whose teams play at Fogwell Road Pavilion, said over the past few years pitches have been largely unplayable from November onwards and has led to matches and training sessions being cancelled.

A pitch maintenance fund – contributed to by sponsors, former players and families – has reached the £1,300 mark required to start work to level out and improve drainage.

Mark Rawlins manages the U8s team, which features his eight-year-old son Connor.

The 32-year-old said: “All they want to do is get on and play football no matter what the weather is.

“We have been at training in the pouring rain and tried to get them under cover but they just want to keep playing.

“When you tell them the game is cancelled they all start sulking.

He added: “It’s been a nightmare – there’s not a lot of space around to play and when there’s been pouring rain we have not been able to play at weekends or train in the week.”

The club did some investigating and discovered drainage problems stemmed from a damaged drain pipe.

The pipe has now been fixed and further improvements will include puncturing the surface of the main pitch with spikes to improve drainage and reduce puddles.

The main pitch at Fogwell Road will also be levelled out and the grass fertilised.

Mr Rawlins added: “We haven’t had much rain this season and the fixed pipe has helped.

“Hopefully these improvements will make it even better and the flatter the pitch the better the football.”

The work is scheduled to start early next month after the last game of this season and be ready for the start of next season.

The club has six league-registered teams at U8s, U9s, U10s, U11s, U12s and U15s while an U6s team have been training this season and could be entered into the league for next season.

Club secretary Brendan Byrne said the club had been plagued by cancellations and postponements in recent years.

He said: “We have had problems with the pitches for a number of years now.

“Last year with the floods we had, it was unplayable for months on end.

“From November onwards each year we face a number of challenges.”

Mr Byrne said: “We use our facilities for matches as well as training and when we can’t use them it adds to the burden as the club has to find alternative space at a price.

“It’s been incredibly frustrating, with six teams registered in the league we should be playing at least one or two matches each weekend.

“We had to play home games at the away team’s pitches.”