18/06/2010 : Football League Blog : Making A Perfect Pitch
18 June 2010 : Making A Perfect Pitch
Following one of the worst winters in nearly 30 years, a number of League One clubs are making significant repairs to their pitches in time for the 2010-11 season. From a Yeovil Town point of view, the December and January winter just gone gave the club their longest gap without football since 1963. Most other clubs were affected in the same way, and various pitches like Stockport County's Edgeley Park ground, Walsall's Bescot Stadium, and Tranmere Rovers' Prenton Park were looking a little sorry for themselves by the time we travelled to play them.

Given the style of football the Glovers have tended to adopt over the years, playing groundball passing across a deeply rutted or boggy pitch becomes a nightmare, and anyone who travelled to the last two games at Edgeley Park will recall how difficult ball countrol was in those circumstances. Whilst that might suit some teams who play the longer ball in general, most clubs aspire to pass the ball along the deck and so a pristine pitch is likely to be essential.

Not all clubs have publicised what they are doing with their pitches over the summer, but a large proportion of League One clubs are doing some significant work. Here's a list of what we could find along the way:

Yeovil Town: As far as we know, there's been no major work on the main Huish Park pitch or the top pitches over the summer. The main work announced has been efforts to improve drainage at the club's Alvington pitches (behind the Airfield Tavern) which are used for the club's Community Trust programme.

Walsall: The Saddlers put 17 bags of seed and 80 tons of agricultural sand on the Bescot Stadium pitch last month in an effort to improve their pitch, and have a further three bags of seed and 20 tons of sand standing by as contingency. They will be using 24 bags of fertiliser per month to keep the growing grass well fed.

Leyton Orient: £50,000 of work to install a new drainage system and re-lay the pitch. The club had suffered from collapsed drains that were 20 years old and as a result the water was not draining away. Two new main drains, running the length of the touchlines have been installed, along with a new outlet at the lowest point of the ground on the South-West corner. Lateral drains supplement the two main drains. Leyton at this stage have not scheduled a home pre-season friendly.

Swindon Town: Miscellaneous work and reseeding. Off the pitch, brand new signage has been put into the Arkell's Stand.

Oldham Athletic: Main top soil layer has been left in place, but the pitch has been scarified and reseeded, despite the Latics being highly commended in the Groundsman of the Year awards for League One. Oldham have also renovated their pitches at their Little Wembley and Chapel Road training complexes. Oldham are also continuing their plans to build a new stadium in the Failsworth part of town. An area of land north of the Lancaster Club where the ground will be built has been officially decreed by the Council as charitable land, but the Council have agreed that provided an equivalent plot of land can be "swapped" elsewhere in the town that they will allow the Latics to use this to build on.

Exeter City: The Grecians have launched a 'Pitch In For City' campaign aimed at raising funds to raise £150,000 from supporter-organised events to pay for the laying of a brand new pitch at St James Park. Everything from World Cup draws, sponsored cycle rides, time capsules buried under the new pitch are being run to raise the funding. Exeter have brought in preproduced turf and have rolled it out in preparation for their first pre-season friendly on July 26th.

Sheffield Wednesday: The Owls have lengthed their pitch by six yards and widened it by three, to give a size of 116 yards by 75 yards for the Hillsborough pitch. Manager Alan Irvine has asked for the changes, and is concentrating on recruiting natural athletes who can cope with the increased distances his players - and of course the opposition - will have to cover. Wednesday are playing all seven of their pre-season friendlies away from home to allow their pitch extra time to settle.

Rochdale: One of League One's newcomers plans to spend £40,000 on replacing their current pitch after it deteriorated badly during the second half of the season. Dale have just a 42 day window in which to do the work, due to their groundsharing with Rugby League side Rochdale Hornets. Dale boss Keith Hill has been highly critical of the turf and believes that redoing their pitch will be more important than buying a new player.

Tranmere Rovers: Their top surface has been removed and replaced, and the pitch fully reseeded. Within two weeks they've been able to put their mower across the pitch for it's first cut. They have around six weeks before they host Nottingham Forest on July 21st in a pre-season friendly.

Bristol Rovers: The surface of the pitch has been removed, and the existing drains under the pitch are being flushed out to remove soil and sediment that has gathered there. They are then laying 120 tons of sand and then reseeding and refertilising their pitch. The timescale they face has been shortened somewhat by Bristol rugby club getting into their play-offs, and the target is their first home friendly on July 24th against West Bromwich Albion.

Hartlepool United: Their work began on Monday May 10th and involved stripping the surface and then cultivating the top soil to about four inches deep. They have then reseeded the entire pitch, including putting seaweed on it - just as well that they're a seaside town. Hartlepool believe they are ahead of schedule thanks to some warm weather in May.

Southampton: Not too many problems at St Mary's where their groundsman Andy Gray was given the Groundsman of the Year award for the 2009-10 season. Norwich City and Oldham Athletic were the other two clubs in contention.

Charlton Athletic: Topsoil has been stripped, dug up and reseeded over the summer. Charlton only lost one game to bad weather during last season, following heavy snowfall followed by freezing temperatures, and so feel that their pitch held out well last season.

Colchester United: The Community Stadium pitch has looked poor since it was laid and as a result, the Essex club have been forced into bringing forward planned maintenance work by 12 months. They currently have contractors installing additional drains under the pitch.


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