One special guest at Wembley for Tuesday night's World Cup Qualifier is the Football Conference Groundsman Of The Year, Rob Brooks.

His excellent work at Alfreton Town saw him beat off tough opposition from the likes of FC Halifax, Forest Green Rovers, Hyde and Farnborough.

The winner is voted for by six judges, all groundsmen at Premier League and Championship football clubs across the country who not only look at the quality of the pitch, but also take into consideration the Groundsman’s skills and knowledge, their ambitions for the pitch, the resources available, how often the pitch is used, and the amount of time they are able to work on the pitch.

And Brooks was delighted to pick up the title, the eleventh annual award, after taking over dutes the Impact Arena five years ago.

“I was made up with the award, because there are some big teams in that league and I didn’t think we had a chance to be honest,” he explained.

“It was a really big honour for the judges to look at us and make the decision. We put in a lot of hard work, a lot of devoting personal time and a lot of hard work every day trying to put it right."

He continued: “When I arrived, we’d just had it laser-levelled, so that helped in getting it flat. Beforehand, it was all over the place with dips and things, but once it was a level surface, we were able to improve it over the years.”

Brooks, who worked for Ilkeston Town before switching to Alfreton, also saw the squad regularly training on his pitch along with commercial and charity matches, adding to the pitch-traffic at the Derbyshire-based club.

It’s been a real labour of love for Brooks too, who has worked on all kinds of surfaces in his career to date, after beginning his journey as a junior with his local council.

“I started as an apprentice on the Amber Valley Borough Council 20 odd years ago, working on bowling greens and cricket pitches and things like that,” revealed Rob.

“I moved onto Broxtowe Borough Council and the football side of things came at Ilkeston when I did some part-time work on the pitch.

“It was through someone who knew that they’d lost their groundsman and they needed someone to help them out, so it started off as that, just doing a bit after work.

“So it’s very good to end up with this award now.”

Results in full: