With the anniversary of last summer's floods fast approaching, it is still hard to believe just how badly Hillsborough Stadium was affected and the amount of work required to ensure the ground would be ready for the start of the season.

SWFC maintenance worker Arthur Cutts was deeply embroiled in the extraordinary events of June 2007 and recalls being totally taken aback by just how fast the water caused such huge devastation.

He said: "The floods came that fast that it took the sandbags away and we had no chance, in a matter of minutes it was a foot deep in the directors' area of the ground.

"Soon we were taking people in off the streets - there was one young lady with a baby that we fetched into the stadium. She was just desperate and she didn't know where she was."

He continued: "We even had rats on the riverside wall - they were dancing on the top of the wall to get out of the water. You just couldn't believe what you were seeing; the water was rising something like six inches every ten minutes."

Working frantically in a desperate bid to reduce the damage, Arthur remembers how he and his colleagues were convinced that the club would struggle to host a game before the turn of the year, such was the carnage:

"You did start to wonder if it was ever going to stop. We never thought we would get a game at Hillsborough last year.

"The situation had become that desperate, we had water coming up through the players tunnel and we were trying to go through it but it was that powerful it was knocking us sideways.

"It's one of those things where you have to see it or be a part of it to believe it. It certainly was an experience and I do believe we'll never see it again in our lifetime."