“WITHOUT the Premier League Stadium Fund, we wouldn’t have a club.”

Tadcaster Albion chairman Andy Charlesworth has revealed the benefits the club have received from the Premier League Stadium Fund, which has helped keep the Brewers adrift in recent difficult times.

With the River Wharfe in such close proximity of the Young Guns Arena, Tadcaster has been prone to flooding in their location, with their pitch becoming fully submerged six times in the last year due to storms.

The Premier League Stadium Fund, formerly named the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, works to provide financial support to football clubs throughout the pyramid, with Tadcaster reaping the benefits as of late.

Charlesworth has revealed that, with its help, the club now has drains that run across the pitch, including a sump basin in the corner which allows water to drain naturally, as well as having the financial support to make repairs to the clubhouse, which has come under damage due to flooding.

"Our club is at the centre of Tadcaster both geographically and in terms of our community," Charlesworth told the Premier League website. "We've got 130 years of history and more than 300 players across 20-odd junior teams.

“We attract fans from across Yorkshire and have even got a supporters' group based in Norway who come across twice a year!

"The whole town of Tadcaster is prone to flooding due to its low-lying land and position on the river, which presents challenges.

“We hope that the Tadcaster flood alleviation scheme that is proposed will help in the long term as we flood every season and our pitch was submerged six times last year following storms.

"With the help of the Premier League, we've invested over the years in various pieces of technology and been able to work with a specialist sports turf company.

“We've got drains that run across the pitch. If you go to the ground, you'll see the pitch is not quite level, its lowest point in the corner has a great big sump [basin] which means water will drain naturally and we can pump the water away.

"Without the support of the Premier League Stadium Fund, we wouldn't have a club.

“When water levels have been high enough to breach our flood doors and damage the clubhouse, we have been able to access grants to make material repairs and to replace things our insurance was not able to cover."

Albion’s grants manager James Hamilton also spoke on the support of the Premier League Stadium Fund, which has seen an improvement on the club’s floodlights, saving the club more than 40 per cent on their energy bill.

Hamilton added: "With the support of the Premier League, we had LED floodlights installed in April.

“Firstly, they are reliable and bright and don't take any time to warm up.

“They are a huge improvement on our old floodlights which needed replacing.

"We are a community club with limited resources and we've had to focus on ensuring the pitch is playable, so this is great.

"We project that the LED floodlights will save us more than 40 per cent on our total energy bill and anything we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is a very good thing."