We’ve all seen how bad the pitch has become recently, along with many other teams, it needs to be said.
This morning I had an email from the club about the England Womens U23s playing there on Thursday. I wonder how much money this actually makes for us and whether it is worth it to the detriment of the pitch condition for us in the games ahead this season, which are obviously very important. I know that we will have agreed it a long time, contracts in place etc but going ahead is it wise to keep doing this, along with Villa women’s team, especially in the winter months when the pitches get as they are.
Even though we are not a possession, passing team, a poor pitch is only going to affect us and be a ‘leveller’ (I hate that term!) How do we cope with it? Do we have to tweak our style and strategy a bit to compensate for how the pitch is?
You’d think with all the extra revenue coming in from Vila , The odd England games there would be enough in the kitty for these heat lamps , either that or they need to stop outsourcing it
Ben Sadlers already responded about it on socials and they don’t feel the pitch is that bad and looks worse then it is and there is minimal home games yet and improving weather will make a big difference.
A guy that sits by me in the lower told me saturday that he spoke to the groundsman and the big issue has been from that tent we used for the TV game and the cold temperature.
Re the extra heatlamps and pitch Ben has said it’s well over 500k cost and the club is not going to afford that.
The article quoted the cost of seeding and laying (Stadium of light) @ approx 160k and the cost of running several light rigs (4-5) large ones was approximately 63k. We know last year money was spent to overhaul the training ground due to flooding… Could this have eaten into our stadium pitch budget meaning a lesser blend of seed / drainage / sand - silicone mix was available?
Would the expense of lights this summer, now the training ground is sorted, result in a saving and improved pitch into the future? It’s possible, and I’d be surprised if the ground staff wouldn’t welcome it…
I wonder if the weather has really been that bad when you consider how well some other pitches are looking between divisions. There has been a huge lack of sunlight over the last few months and especially last summer when the seeds were planted for our pitch.
Is it possible our crop (grass) partly failed due to an exceptionally cloudy July / Winter, I am not the only one who thought it didn’t look quite as thick or established earlier this summer.
From last night’s report on Morecambe v Doncaster, Derek had this to say about their pitch surface: “Turning his attention from Biology to Botany, Derek also explained that there is a disease in the grass on the home pitch which is killing it off and that improvement in the muddy surface won’t happen until Spring when the growing season starts once more”.
Probably also responsible for them losing 1-0 continually too…
The Bescot pitch at the present is nothing compared to the state of the Fellows Park pitch on the occasion of our FA Cup tie v. Newcastle United in 1975. Game on was the verdict of the referee in this pitch inspection.
I can also confirm that the pitch situation is due to the hot air cover that was in place for the live game on Sky.
The freezing weather at the time meant that the hot air kept the ground temperature at 5 degrees C, but the condensation that developed on the inside of the cover was dripping back on to the grass.
On the day the covers were removed, the temperature was still below freezing and the grass then had a sudden shock from the cold weather and it has not recovered fully and hence it looks very patchy.
And of course, during the days that it was under cover, it was not getting any natural light.
Mind you, because of the anticyclonic gloom that has persisted this winter, none of us have!
Is there any T.V. coverage of that game? Anything on Youtube? I’ve looked a couple of times but never been able to find owt.
I think I have a memory of seeing the goal on a news clip a day or two after the match so I think something must have existed.
Anyway, referring to your picture, I’m sure there was some grass on the pitch because Acker Birch and Brian Taylor used it on the wings to skip past the hapless Geordie full backs time after time.
@JumboTrudgeon Not that I’m aware of. I often re check YouTube myself ‘just in case’ but to no avail. Re the Newcastle game I recall there being a single camera fixed at the Laundry End which gave superb filming of George Andrews’s goal. The Man United replay brief highlights were shown on ATV Today the following evening and their news programme on the night of the game was held live from Fellows Park , presented by Bob Warman. Sadly there don’t seem to be any footage of this out there.
Thanks. I remember the camera above the Laundry End, and I’m fairly sure I saw the goal once on the news.
It’s a shame it isn’t available to watch now. I’ll just have to watch it again in my head, using my view from the Enclosure. I’ve watched that replay a few hundred times over the years.
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