Magpies confirm switch to world class training facility...
Notts County Football Club is delighted to confirm an agreement with St George’s Park National Football Centre that will see the Keith Curle’s squad train at the state-of-the-art facility over the next 12 months.
Home to the England national team, St George’s Park is set in 330 acres of beautifully landscaped parkland and includes a full-sized indoor third generation football pitch, a 60m x 40m multi-purpose indoor sports hall, 11 full size outdoor pitches and one elite DESSO training pitch, which is an exact replica of Wembley.
The Magpies will still have access to the Highfields training facility, which will be put to use the day before matches and when the Three Lions are preparing for an international fixture.
As the team aims to gain promotion to the Championship by playing attractive, passing football, Curle feels that the move to the Burton-on-Trent base will only prove to be beneficial.
He told Magpie Player: “I think if you have a look at the overall playing surface and the atmosphere of the place, I think it’s pretty obvious why we’re training here.
“It’s a fantastic, consistent training surface for us to play on, a professional environment and it’s absolutely unbelievable that we’re able to come here.
“I think we will notice the benefits throughout the season because we’ll be playing on a consistent surface day in, day out, even in inclement weather when other training surfaces will not be as good.
“We won’t have to modify our training because of the conditions because of the foundation of the playing surface.
“At the end of last season, the training ground was dictating the work that we were doing.
“Obviously if you’re playing on a bobbly surface and you want to be a passing team, it wasn’t conducive to how we wanted to play.”
He continued: “A decision was made at board level to try and find the best surface that we could.
“I think it shows the ambition of the football club, because we are guests of the National Football Centre.
“As soon as you come here, you’ll be involved in an environment that is used for all the elite athletes.”
You can take a look at the Magpies’ area of the new training facility on Magpie Player by clicking here.