With the new season dawning this weekend Deepdale has been getting an overhaul ahead of its big day. As announced a few weeks ago, the exterior of the older three sides of the stadium were in need of a bit of TLC and this week that work has got underway.

Speaking about the refurb project General Manager Ben Rhodes told PNE.Com: "We have taken a local company - KC Cleaning - on as sub-contractors to break the back of the cleaning of the Tom Finney Stand, Town End and Kop. Two lads Chris Ward and John Morley have been working hard this week using a cherry-picker to get to some of the more extreme places on the stand where over the last 12 years grime has built up.

"We have also recently employed two extra staff on maintenance team, but they are very busy on final prepping of new stand and the works to have everything ready for the opening day, so the two guys from KC have been helping us get on top of things and we intend to do a lot more work in improving the look of the three older stands at Deepdale over the coming months.

"The Sir Tom Finney Stand is 12-years-old and I think this is the first time anything has been done over head height. We want to get it looking spick and span and we know areas are in decline, but we want to make sure it is a stadium the supporters can be proud of and visitors enjoy coming to."

One of the new facilities and maintenance team, who has co-ordinated the spruce up is Vincent George and he says it will be an ongoing process: "The work this week has been the start of a series of jobs we plan to do to refresh the look of Deepdale. The job the lads have done so far has had a fantastic impact with many positive comments and hopefully the supporters will continue to see an improvement in the look and feel of their stadium."