Faversham Town chairman Gary Smart on the impact the new 3G pitch at Salters Lane will have in the area ahead of first game on it in The FA Cup against Merstham

Chairman Gary Smart is already starting to see the hard work of installing Faversham Town’s new 3G pitch pay dividends.

Town’s first-team squad trained on it for the first time this week while Smart also went on the surface, which cost around £750,000.

With many other non-league clubs opting to get artificial pitches in recent years, discussions over whether Town should follow suit have taken place. Ultimately, Faversham had decided to stick with the grass surface they have had since the Salters Lane club reformed in 2005 - until Smart, appointed as chairman last May, decided the timing was right.

Smart, of Smart Office Solution Ltd, explained: “The remit here has always been ‘No, we can’t’. We’ve come in as a new board, a new dynamic and with new ideas and said ‘We’ve got to do it’.

“They left it in my hands to go out and get the relative funding in place.

“We got that funding done by the end of December, which is mainly guaranteed from my company and myself. But the club, as a commercial aspect, will be able to offset some of that debt itself.

“It’s for the community. It’s for Faversham first - by Faversham first, I mean the whole town and Faversham Strike Force, the Kent Youth League [sides] and then the East Youth League [teams].

“We’ve got 47 hours a week booked on it already without advertising anything and a list as long as your arm to try and get on it!

“We have mitigated a load of spaces at the Abbey School, from Strike Force and Faversham Town, so it’s £750,000 well spent on the community.

“A lot of people walking around the stadium have all said they never thought in their wildest dreams that it would happen.

“So, it’s already having a big impact.”

Tenants Faversham Strike Force, of Southern Counties East