Whitehaven left counting cost of heavy floods

The club’s grass pitch has also been damaged by the flooding, but it is hoped that the surface will be playable ahead of next Saturday’s home game against Turton in the West Lancashire League Premier Division.

Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, Cumbria saw up to 450mm of rain – the average for the whole of October is about 160mm.

Some flood warnings were still in place in the county yesterday.

The benefits of a 3G pitch to a community are huge and with uncertainty now about how long it will take before the flooding damage is fixed, Whitehaven will have to make changes to upcoming projects and face the prospect of having to find alternative playing fields for the 450-plus children who play in the club’s youth teams.

Club Secretary David Rushforth complimented the FA’s involvement in the situation.

He said: "The FA has been great. They’ve pointed us in the right direction, to where we might be able to access funds.

“We don’t know what it is going to cost to fix, some of the numbers that we’re hearing are eye-wateringly high, but we will hopefully know in the next day or two where we stand.

"We’ve been working with insurance companies and the supplier, and the FA have a fund for the floods too, so we will hopefully know soon what is going to happen in the future.”