Tulips fans will have to wait to see their team in home action at the revamped Sir Halley Stewart Field.
Delays to the installation of the new artificial playing surface means it will not be laid in time for the start of the Southern League Premier Central season and the team will be playing their first four games away from home.
Matches against Harborough Town on Tuesday, August 12, and Bromsgrove Rovers four days later have been reversed to their opponents’ grounds. The later season return matches will instead be played at Spalding.
A club spokesman said: “Due to delays in the shipping of key materials, the pitch installation has been pushed back slightly.
“The delay is down to issues out of anyone’s control. Containers carrying the materials left port in China in May but faced unexpected hold-ups in Shanghai and again in Algeciras in Spain, where our contractors tried to get the goods off the ship early to move them by road—unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.”
Further efforts to offload at Rotterdam and Hamburg were also denied and the latest update suggests the containers will now land at Southampton about August 10.
Once they arrive in Spalding, pitch contractors PST Sport have arranged for extra resources and extended working hours to get the surface laid quickly.
“As things stand, we’re expecting the pitch to be ready between August 20-22, just before the planned Bank Holiday weekend home fixture versus AFC Stamford,” added the spokesman.
“We completely understand the frustration and thank you all for your patience. The short-term disruption will be more than worth it when we unveil a top-class facility that will benefit the whole club and wider community for many years to come.”
