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State of Pitches



Sep 14, 2006
472
Philadelphia
Yes, both teams have to play on the same surface but surely each club should be forced to maintain a high quality playing surface. There simply isn't an excuse that I can see. Look at Preston's pitch for their FA Cup match tonight vs. Blackpool or Sheff Wed or Charlton's last year. Why do some clubs allow their pitches to become muddy fields with white lines when others seem to provide a high quality surface. Should they face points deductions?
 


Surf's Up

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2011
10,147
Here
I agree. Maintaining a certain standard of pitch should be a requirement of membership of any particular league. They have regulations regarding seating, floodlighting etc so no reason why the pitch shouldn't be included and a system of fines and/or points deduction introduced.
 


Mayonaise

Well-known member
May 25, 2014
2,114
Haywards Heath
I agree. With the cost of a ticket to watch professional football these days, it's not right that fans are expected to accept an inferior game because the playing surface is not fit for purpose.
 


Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
Karanke has put in an official complaint to the League, about Blackpool's pitch, which caused two players to get injured.
 








parks

New member
Jan 17, 2004
1,009
East Sussex
I remember some lovely pitches at the Withdean.......so what would you have done about that? Fines points deductions?
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228
Yep. Easy for us to say now. We had several seasons of horrendous pitches during the first few years at Withdean.

Once the surface in a poor condition, it's not easily revived, and can only be fixed by months of being left alone (or being completely relaid, or the drainage re-done, which can be prohibitively expensive for small clubs). Wednesday's pitch was terrible- I've mentioned it elsewhere, one of their stewards told me it had been really poor ever since the nearby river flooded it three or four years ago). Bradford's was bad, Pompey's looked pretty poor last time I saw footage of one of their games on TV. It's almost impossible to fix mid-season.

I do wonder if Blackpool's is a different scenario to usual though. But I shan't comment further for fear of the Oystons tilting their anti-fan legal campaign in NSC's direction.
 




studio150

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2011
29,553
On the Border
It all depends on why the pitch is in a poor state. I recall one season when you he goldstone was poor with sand all over it, all because one game I think against Bristol rovers when it should have been postponed due to the amount of water on it.

Also if the threat of fines or points was present would it see lots of clubs pushing for plastic pitches
 


el punal

Well-known member
Does anyone remember the perfect solution to making a bare pitch look immaculate? I'm sure, when Frankie Howard was our groundsman at the Goldstone, that he created a mixture of sawdust and green paint. This was duly sprinkled on to the pitch prior the televised Division 3 game against Aston Villa in 1972. And . . . . voila! A playing surface looking as pristine as a bowling green and wonderful to behold in glorious colour on Match of the Day.
 



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