My local football club, apart from finishing at its highest ever position in the Premiership (sixth) has, for the first time ever in its 127-year history, qualified for European football* next season.
No, really. Once considered by some to be a club with no real ambition, it came to within a whisker of becoming extinct during the 2008-9 season before staging a meteoric rise to top flight football in the English League just six years later.
The ground - Dean Court (currently known as Vitality Stadium for sponsorship purposes), was totally rebuilt in 2001, and has a present capacity of 11,300. However, plans have recently been approved to develop the site, which will include the demolition of the south stand and the filling-in of all four corners of the ground to increase the crowd capacity to nearly double.
Working on a Bank Holiday, the race is on to get some of that work finished before the start of the next season in August... and European competition.
*Europa League
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