serious point here. The pitch is shocking and will not help us get out of a relegation scrap &may even help towards it (as today shows). Question is, can we do anything about it ? Assuming the takeover goes through & we have some money to use, then could we realistically re-lay/re-turf or even put a brand new surface down asap.
Looking at our forthcoming fixtures, we do have 4 weeks in which this could be done if we don't play the b/mouth home game on the 25th Jan. Seeing as this is FA Cup 4th round day we may find that either us or B/mouth are in cup action and the game will be postponed. It is quite feasible that that is the case and therefore after our home game v Barnsley on the 11th Jan our next home game isn't until we play B/ham on 8th Feb.
new drainage is whats wanted and that cant happen till the end of the season so we have to hope we don't get much more rain or the next thing will be sand,and look what Blackpool's pitch looked like last season
Surely a bad pitch is our advantage as we play on it all the time whereas the oppo play one off games. We should have adapted by now.
Our players don't trust it. Hughes and Wood said as much at Maidstone Addicks. At least other teams come and play their normal game whereas our players know how bad it is and don't feel confident on it. Wood said that there were six different pitches out there varying in bounce, softness and skid. It's an embarrassment to the club. I can't see it lasting January through March if it's a normal wet winter. Could be bad news if we have a fixture pile up if we are in relegation trouble come May.
That pitch is a disgrace and pathetic Unfortunately we don't have any supporters who wanna do the drainage work for free and no one to sponsor it far be it for the owners to have spent some money on that
There have been figures quoted on here - somewhere = of the consistent reduction in budget over the last two years, that combined with consistent bd weather is the under investment.
Really talking out of my arse now, but Sparrows is in a different enviroment as it is open on all sides and therefore wind is able to remove moisture, even last weeks. Valley is hemmed in, wind does not remove water.
Funny how the pitches at Sparrows Lane are in excellent nick despite being in constant use. Maybe the "under investment" doesn't apply there.
Some park pitches that have fuck all money spent on them are in better nick, the conditions around the Valley pitch , drainage for example, need work done on them , Sparrows Lane is open and conditions are easier to maintain
It wasn't that bad on Thursday, so no idea what has happened in 3 days....
The pitch was very wet before the game on Boxing Day and cut up very bad. The pitch has since been rolled as to leave it as it was and the frost last night, the pitch would have been unplayable today.
There is clearly a major problem in the soil with the drainage, as while the budget may have been cut, I'm sure we still spend vastly more than teams in L1 and L2 who have better pitches.
So what is this under investment everyone keeps quoting? What haven't we spent money on that we did in the Premiership?
Serious question.
Or is the real reason for the state of the pitch the freak wet weather we have had this last 2 or 3 years?
From what I gather, rather than the normal digging it all up, including all the drainage, the budget only allowed for scraping off the top layer then re-laying turf on top.
Just hope the new owners don't see this as the ground staff not being capable and sack them. Paddy has done a sterling job over the years. Might be wrong but pretty sure he's won awards for our pitch in the past..............
has anyone thought that a match could be postponed if the pitch is too bad, then we could have enough time to fix the important areas. so long as the whole penalty area, the center circle area with an area aroud it and the edges of the pitch were fixed, the pitch would be decent. im actually serious, we could call a game off if the pitch is unplayable.
I could be wrong but surely "we" don't call games off. If a referee decides that a pitch presents a danger to players' well-being then I suppose he could call it off and if anyone knows if this has happened at a senior level (outside of the obvious heavy rain snow etc) that would be interesting. A few years ago Middlesboro decided unilaterally to postpone a game because of injuries - they claimed to be unable to field a side - and the League docked them 3 points, which relegated them.
has anyone thought that a match could be postponed if the pitch is too bad, then we could have enough time to fix the important areas. so long as the whole penalty area, the center circle area with an area aroud it and the edges of the pitch were fixed, the pitch would be decent. im actually serious, we could call a game off if the pitch is unplayable.
Poor paddy they may as well have cut his arms off with the amount they cut his budget, however we are still in existence fighting hard and if we have a shit pitch then so what we should be able to adapt better than any other team on it due to it being our surface for half a season
Comments
Looking at our forthcoming fixtures, we do have 4 weeks in which this could be done if we don't play the b/mouth home game on the 25th Jan. Seeing as this is FA Cup 4th round day we may find that either us or B/mouth are in cup action and the game will be postponed. It is quite feasible that that is the case and therefore after our home game v Barnsley on the 11th Jan our next home game isn't until we play B/ham on 8th Feb.
could it be done ??
Serious question.
Or is the real reason for the state of the pitch the freak wet weather we have had this last 2 or 3 years?
Unfortunately we don't have any supporters who wanna do the drainage work for free and no one to sponsor it
far be it for the owners to have spent some money on that
Put Kermo up top with Smith
Really talking out of my arse now, but Sparrows is in a different enviroment as it is open on all sides and therefore wind is able to remove moisture, even last weeks. Valley is hemmed in, wind does not remove water.
Just hope the new owners don't see this as the ground staff not being capable and sack them. Paddy has done a sterling job over the years. Might be wrong but pretty sure he's won awards for our pitch in the past..............
How do you 'fix' a pitch in a week ?
Pitch is woeful.
And if it's a choice between an inflatable tent and a new striker what would you rather have?