Barnoldswick Town will be making a couple of acquisitions from the Premier League as they bid to secure promotion from the North West Counties League.

The Victory Park club are purchasing 50 seats from Everton and two turnstiles from Queen’s Park Rangers as they continue to upgrade their facilities in the hope of winning a place in the Evo Stik League.

A new outdoor toilet block, improved perimeter fencing to fully enclose the Silentnight Stadium and better entrances to the ground are just some of the improvements that are taking place.

Club secretary Lynn James said: “The club members have been tremendous in doing so much of the work for us.

“A group of them were out in the snow the Saturday before last finishing off the fencing.

“We have a very tight-knit club and everybody is pulling together.”

The weather has posed problems. “Some of the jobs like connecting up the new toilet block and surfacing the entrances to the ground have been delayed, but they will be completed shortly,” said Mrs James.

The seats from Everton’s Goodison Park stadium will raise Town’s seating capacity to the required 150 and the turnstiles will also assist in the process of achieving the necessary ground grading.

Mrs James pointed out: “It is fair to say that in recent seasons the progress the club has made on the field has outpaced its progress off it.

“Now we are determined to have the facilities that will enable our team to play in a higher league if we qualify for promotion. Our managers and players have worked wonders. They are all so committed to the club.”

She added: “Some of our rivals have claimed that we are buying our success with money, but that certainly isn’t the case.

“Many of our players came from Sunday football and have progressed with the club. We gave them their chance at this level and they have taken it.

“It is a measure of their loyalty that each week they pay for one of the training sessions and the club meets the cost of the other one.

“There cannot be too many other clubs at our level where the players do that. They are a great group.”