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Fitz

Exiled Kent Shrimper
Joined
Apr 22, 2014
Messages
764
Location
Canterbury
The pitch is a total embarrassment to our football club and must be the worst pitch in the entire football league.

We have for many years always had and excellent playing surface, one of the best in the lower leagues. I am not sure if sacking the groundsmen is too blame, clearly it was relaid far too late and the grass roots have not established before the winter set in.

We are a professional football club and I am surprised the football league are happy with it, it is very dangerous I have seen a number of players twist their ankles with their studs getting stuck in the pitch and our high level of injuries can't be a coincidence with such a **** pitch.

Martin needs to get his wallet out and sort it out, completely unacceptable.
 
I don't know much about groundskeeping but can we actually do anything about it if footballers are going to run around and rip it up every fortnight? As you said it seems the ground was relaid too late so we started playing on it before it was ready, presumably it needs time to bed in properly but it can't do that if we're running over it all the time.
 
I really don't get this mania for re-laying football pitches. As has been mentioned by Fitz above, we always had one of the best playing surfaces in the lower leagues. My memories, going back over 50 years, are that the goalposts were taken down after the final match of the season in April and the worn areas around the 6-yard box were levelled and re-seeded (or possibly re-turfed). The rest of the pitch was studiously aerated, watered, fed and mown throughout the close season so that, by the time we got to August, the entire pitch was in top playing condition. Why we had to change things and spend vast amounts of money on re-laying the pitch beats me.
 
The pitch is a total embarrassment to our football club and must be the worst pitch in the entire football league.

We have for many years always had and excellent playing surface, one of the best in the lower leagues. I am not sure if sacking the groundsmen is too blame, clearly it was relaid far too late and the grass roots have not established before the winter set in.

We are a professional football club and I am surprised the football league are happy with it, it is very dangerous I have seen a number of players twist their ankles with their studs getting stuck in the pitch and our high level of injuries can't be a coincidence with such a **** pitch.

Martin needs to get his wallet out and sort it out, completely unacceptable.

This has been done to death on here - it's not the growing season, what do you possibly expect to be done in the middle of January?

Once it hadn't improved in November, it was clear that we would be stuck with it.
 
This has been done to death on here - it's not the growing season, what do you possibly expect to be done in the middle of January?

Once it hadn't improved in November, it was clear that we would be stuck with it.

I disagree, anything can be sorted out at a price, just another contributing factor in my mind in our descent to league 2.
 
This has been done to death on here - it's not the growing season, what do you possibly expect to be done in the middle of January?

Once it hadn't improved in November, it was clear that we would be stuck with it.

I suppose it's just the sheer frustration of the situation, which is perfectly understandable.

I can't remember a time where literally every aspect of our season has been this shambolic.
 
This has been done to death on here - it's not the growing season, what do you possibly expect to be done in the middle of January?

Once it hadn't improved in November, it was clear that we would be stuck with it.
Hardly the point OBL that nothing can be done now, but why was it laid so late in the first place. We are meant to be a pro club, for me just another balls up on top of a balls up season.
 
Hardly the point OBL that nothing can be done now, but why was it laid so late in the first place. We are meant to be a pro club, for me just another balls up on top of a balls up season.

I've explained this loads of times. The company we usually used were not able to do it this year - I can't remember if they've gone out of business or what now, but I think that's what it was - so we had to find another company. This company was due to come to us after having done West Ham's training ground pitches but then their machinery broke down meaning that it was almost 3 weeks late being laid. This obviously meant that valuable growing time was lost.

The club has spent thousands of pounds trying to rectify things, calling in numerous experts and trying various different methods to get it back to a suitable standard, but none of it has worked.
 
Have they tried putting a layer of no more nails under the top layer that keeps coming off?
 
I've explained this loads of times. The company we usually used were not able to do it this year - I can't remember if they've gone out of business or what now, but I think that's what it was - so we had to find another company. This company was due to come to us after having done West Ham's training ground pitches but then their machinery broke down meaning that it was almost 3 weeks late being laid. This obviously meant that valuable growing time was lost.

The club has spent thousands of pounds trying to rectify things, calling in numerous experts and trying various different methods to get it back to a suitable standard, but none of it has worked.

You seem to know all about this. Out of interest just how many "thousands" have been spent and who are the "numerous" experts ? When the relaying (and presumably the removal of previous turf) was so late did they consider the option of repairing the worn parts but keeping the same turf and nurturing it through the summer?
 
You seem to know all about this. Out of interest just how many "thousands" have been spent and who are the "numerous" experts ? When the relaying (and presumably the removal of previous turf) was so late did they consider the option of repairing the worn parts but keeping the same turf and nurturing it through the summer?

I know what I know because the question has been a recurring topic at the Trust's liaison meetings. If you have specific questions then I can direct you to the right person to ask at the club.
 
I recently watched a DVD of Southend-Canvey (the tie that was switched to Roots Hall) - now the pitch that day was far, far worse!
 
I really don't get this mania for re-laying football pitches. As has been mentioned by Fitz above, we always had one of the best playing surfaces in the lower leagues. My memories, going back over 50 years, are that the goalposts were taken down after the final match of the season in April and the worn areas around the 6-yard box were levelled and re-seeded (or possibly re-turfed). The rest of the pitch was studiously aerated, watered, fed and mown throughout the close season so that, by the time we got to August, the entire pitch was in top playing condition. Why we had to change things and spend vast amounts of money on re-laying the pitch beats me.

Couldn't agree more. Having had the privilege of playing on the Roots Hall pitch in the 80s, I can testify to the quality of the playing surface then. For me, it's simply a case of bad planning and throwing good money after bad in trying to fix an incurable problem once the season had started.
I accept that the current pitch "is what it is" and little can be done about it, but that doesn't make it right. :thumbdown:
 
I accept that the current pitch "is what it is" and little can be done about it, but that doesn't make it right. :thumbdown:


This is spot on, I think we can all agree on that and we've all seen players who've got their feet stuck in the surface and noticed that some've become expert gardeners!
 
This is spot on, I think we can all agree on that and we've all seen players who've got their feet stuck in the surface and noticed that some've become expert gardeners!

Their keeper tried to take a quick goal kick to one of his defenders, first half yesterday and slipped but managed to stop himself at the last second. Some in the east accused him of time wasting but he was replacing one of those divots that any tartan flares wearing Jock on the Wembley pitch in 1977 would have been proud of.
 
You seem to know all about this. Out of interest just how many "thousands" have been spent and who are the "numerous" experts ? When the relaying (and presumably the removal of previous turf) was so late did they consider the option of repairing the worn parts but keeping the same turf and nurturing it through the summer?

I know what I know because the question has been a recurring topic at the Trust's liaison meetings. If you have specific questions then I can direct you to the right person to ask at the club.

Sorry, as you regularly jump to the defence of the club whenever anyone criticizes them for this (or tries, not unreasonably, to link it to the summary dismissal of the groundsman) I assumed you were aware of the details and had asked those sort of questions. I thought when you quote "thousands of pounds", you'd have a rough idea whether it was two thousand or twenty thousand. Or perhaps the Trust simply takes what it's told on trust - a trusting Trust?
 
Sorry, as you regularly jump to the defence of the club whenever anyone criticizes them for this (or tries, not unreasonably, to link it to the summary dismissal of the groundsman) I assumed you were aware of the details and had asked those sort of questions. I thought when you quote "thousands of pounds", you'd have a rough idea whether it was two thousand or twenty thousand. Or perhaps the Trust simply takes what it's told on trust - a trusting Trust?

Maybe it's because I am not at liberty to reveal sensitive financial information?
 
Sorry, as you regularly jump to the defence of the club whenever anyone criticizes them for this (or tries, not unreasonably, to link it to the summary dismissal of the groundsman) I assumed you were aware of the details and had asked those sort of questions. I thought when you quote "thousands of pounds", you'd have a rough idea whether it was two thousand or twenty thousand. Or perhaps the Trust simply takes what it's told on trust - a trusting Trust?

OBL has explained on numerous occasions so why should she have to give more details to you. If her information doesn't fit your preconceived theory then maybe, just maybe its you that got things wrong.
 
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