Sutton United manager Paul Doswell said it was a calculated gamble to rip up the Gander Green Lane pitch before planning permission for a new 3G pitch had been granted.

He also praised the hard work of rivals and neighbours Carshalton Athletic, who are also installing a state-of-the-art pitch over the summer after their successful appealing an original red light.

The diggers rolled in to the Lane on May 18 ahead of Sutton Council giving the green light last week.

United will officially open the new pitch on July 14 with a pre-season friendly against Crystal Palace.

Doswell said: “We took the gamble that the permission would be granted and ripped up the pitch and drainage.

“If the plans had been turned down, the worst case scenario would be that we’d have to reseed it all.

Wimbledon Times:

Hard-working: Paul Dipre and the folk of Carshalton Athletic

“But we were so confident of the permission being granted and now the work is on schedule.”

He added: “I have to give a lot of credit to Paul Dipre [chairman] at Carshalton Athletic.

“He and the club put in a lot of hard work to win the appeal against the original decision to not grant them permission, and we just had to wait for the outcome and then sail in with them.”

Meanwhile, United’s season ticket scheme continues to bring in the punters with more than 400 of the 1,000 cut-price tickets already sold.

Doswell said: “The good thing is that those buying tickets are mostly new names.

“There are still a lot of last season’s season ticket holders to renew their tickets, so hopefully they will take up the offer.

“But we’re already 250 up on last season and we’re hopeful of hitting the target of 1,000, we just need to keep the momentum going.”