Rotherham United and the planned facelift for AESSEAL New York Stadium

The League One club's chief operating officer, Paul Douglas, says the venue, which opened its doors in 2012, is still the envy of many EFL teams, but he admits that work needs to be done to restore it to its full glory.

The COO, who first pledged that improvements would be made at fans forum last June, highlighted a leaking roof as the main concern.

“We've spent money on the stadium,” he said. “Every year, it has an engineering survey as to its structural viability, which will inevitably throw up a few things that we have to do - and which we do.

“I think the big issue at the moment is that we've had a few leaks in the roof, which we're going to have to address.

“It's a big job, though, because it's not something where you just get someone to shuffle up a ladder, It requires equipment - cherry-pickers, or whatever they call these things.

“We'll have to deal with that in the summer.”

While New York is in need of some remedial attention, it continues to stand proud in the town and has won plaudits from supporters from all around the country.

“It's still the third-newest stadium in the country, to my knowledge,” Douglas said. “I can't remember, before this season, hearing very much criticism of it.

“We still consistently get a lot of praise from visiting clubs. I go to a lot of grounds and I think it still compares favourably with most, if not all, of them, certainly in the bottom two divisions.

“And we got consistent praise in the Championship in the seven years we've had in that division in the last 13 years or so.”

The COO addressed the media earlier this week to address fans' unrest over a number of issues following two and half seasons that haven't gone as well as the majority of the ones the previous decade.

He claims that any shortcomings at the ground aren't indicative of a wider malaise in S60.

“Do we need to keep on top of it? Absolutely,” he said. “I'm not going to deny that there's a facelift required. We'll do it. But I don't think it's symptomatic of anything, if I'm honest.”