It has been confirmed that Pickering Town's ground will be good enough for them to get promoted to the UniBond League should they get in a position to do so.

A statement on the club's website said: "We are delighted to officially announce that our football ground at Mill Lane has been awarded the E Grade by the FA Ground Grading Technical Panel.

"The decision was made at a recent meeting held at the FA headquarters in London and confirmed to us in writing soon after.

"This is tremendous news, we had been advised by the FA in May that the ground had passed the inspection and would be recommended for approval.

"Our case was then to be considered at the above meeting and we now have a positive outcome as a result.

"There has been recent press speculation that we had received this confirmation some time ago.

"However, this was incorrect and, whilst we were confident of the outcome, we have learned to our peril not to take anything on ground grading matters for granted which is why we have delayed this announcement until we received official written confirmation.

"This means that the management team and the players can kick off the new league season with the knowledge that promotion to the next level (step 4 in the pyramid system) is in the hands of the team.

"Despite this great news, we will endeavour to improve the facilities at the ground with a view to being awarded the D grade which will be required to maintain UniBond league division 1 status should promotion be achieved."