The landscape of Stoke City Football Club is changing with the Premier League team looking to progress up the league and the ambitions of manager Mark Hughes are matched by those of head groundsman Andy Jackson.
The Potters recently purchased a Dakota 412 Turf Tender for use at The Britannia Stadium and their Clayton Wood training complex in order to provide quality pitches all year round for Stoke’s growing list of European talent.
With a staff of eight Andy has been purchasing machines that allow his team to complete mini renovations throughout the season with the recently purchased Dakota joining a Vredo seeder, eight Dennis mowers across both sites and two New Holland tractors.
“Our aim is to keep the pitches in the best condition throughout the season as we don’t have the staffing levels to Koro pitches but we like to use specialist contractors for that part of the process because the site is so busy that it can take two months to complete the renovation,” Andy explained.
“Because the nature of the site we’re getting so busy that we now require more intense maintenance work throughout the season, so we as a club feel we need the machinery to progress the pitches in-house to give us the flexibility to work when its needed.
Andy is familiar with what a Dakota can offer and has seen its work first hand when used by contractors at the football club and cites the “reliable and accurate” machine as a strong addition to his fleet.
“We’ve had a Dakota used on our site for a few years so we decided to purchase one to do mini renovations and apply light dustings of sand throughout the season to help the pitches with traction and drainage.
“We know that it’s a reliable, accurate and easy to use and that’s exactly what we need to help progress our pitches across both sites.”
