Neilston FC’s new look pavilion has been unveiled after tradesmen pitched in with their services for free to breathe fresh life into the club’s facilities at Brig O’Lea.
Work started at the beginning of the summer on creating a new dressing room, showers and manager’s office, with the aim of finishing in time for the side’s first home league game of the 2023/24 season.
This deadline was met as the team used the impressive brand-new facilities, which are decked out in the club’s colours, for the first-time last week.
Celebrating the transformation, Neilston said in a social media post: “We'd like to thank everyone who helped our club so generously in achieving this, particularly Steven Galbraith.
“Also thank you to Euan Currie Plumbing, Brian Dailly, DAMM Environmental, Colin Elliot Decorators, Hamilton Bricklaying, Karen, MAS Electrical, Kevin McLean, J&M Murdoch, Arthur Stewart, TJG Property Services and all the committee members and suppliers for their generous help.”
The new manager’s office has been created in a storage cupboard, which, decades ago, served as a “pie hut”.
It is hoped that the work, which was carried out in between the day jobs of those involved, will help give the club an added professional edge.
Steven, who is a joiner by trade, said: “We are trying to get the stadium, looking a wee bit better.
“A lot of work done has been done on the pitch and we thought we might as well try and do something inside the pavilion just to make it a bit more professional.
“(Vice president) Mark Duncan approached me and asked if I would been interested in helping out because I’m on the committee as well, so we just decided to take it from there.
“We asked the new manager what his feelings about it were and he said 100% because it'd be easier for him to attract better players with better facilities.
“A lot of people can’t believe the transformation.”
Plans are also in the pipeline to turn the old away dressing room into a separate physio room.
The facility is now a world away from when the pavilion first opened in 1964 and the game was 11-a-side with no substitutes.
As time went on and with 18 plus players on each side to accommodate, overcrowding became an issue.
With this long-standing problem now addressed, the club’s president said the players are “delighted” with the transformation.
Graham Walker told the Barrhead News: “It brings the pavilion up to the standard you would expect from a higher-up clubs.
“I am absolutely delighted about the work that's been done and with the guys who did it.
“There are a lot of folk who have put effort in but a few in particular have spent quite a bit of time and effort to getting it to the standard it is.
“Now we can get 18 players seated fairly comfortably, which in itself is quite an achievement in an old building.
“It also means that the visiting teams have got what was our old home dressing room, which was done up a number of years ago and is a better standard (than the original away dressing room).
“It’s hard to put into words how good the place looks and the difference it makes to the teams when they walk in and see it.”
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