Blundell Park pitch

What on earth has happened to the pitch? In the 50 years I’ve been going, until the last couple of years it always drained well and always in reasonable condition.

But yesterday it was in a poor state and it’s only early January. Admittedly the weather hasn’t been great, but not exceptionally bad either.

I think we’ve spent money on improving the drainage, but it’s still a mess.

Don’t know what can be done about it, but looks like something is urgently needed.

Quoted from NorthseaMariner

What on earth has happened to the pitch? In the 50 years I’ve been going, until the last couple of years it always drained well and always in reasonable condition.

But yesterday it was in a poor state and it’s only early January. Admittedly the weather hasn’t been great, but not exceptionally bad either.

I think we’ve spent money on improving the drainage, but it’s still a mess.

Don’t know what can be done about it, but looks like something is urgently needed.

It’s nigh on 100 years old (I’m well aware it’s been replaced) and I’d imagine the knock on effect of furloughing thr groundsman which meant the pitch went to rack and ruin for a year hasn’t helped…

Quoted from NorthseaMariner

What on earth has happened to the pitch? In the 50 years I’ve been going, until the last couple of years it always drained well and always in reasonable condition.

But yesterday it was in a poor state and it’s only early January. Admittedly the weather hasn’t been great, but not exceptionally bad either.

I think we’ve spent money on improving the drainage, but it’s still a mess.

Don’t know what can be done about it, but looks like something is urgently needed.

Check out some of the historic footage on You Tube etc.. yes it clearly has not stood up well in the last few weeks but I don’t think it’s always been brilliant up until now.

The Town v Man City game from the mid 80s was a mud-fest of epic proportions.    Happy days!

But yes, I saw the highlights of yesterday's match and thought it looked a bit rough and stodgy.

Yes, maybe my memory is a tad clouded, probably due to the fact all pitches were much heavier than they are nowadays.

But it doesn’t change the fact something needs to be done.

They’ve been training on it a bit lately cause Cheapside was waterlogged.

We have had a lot of rain. Currently in York and the river is up and covering the footpaths, on the verge of widespread flooding if we get any more.

Weather patterns are changing and causing havoc. The pitch was frozen not so long back.

There was a lot of work done on the pitch in the summer. All the grass was scraped off and re-seeded, so they are trying their best to keep it in good nick, but nature wins mostly.

It probably wants taking up and relaying with more modern systems and grasses, but that is a big expense.

Seen it in a lot worse states in the past . Going back to when there was a game there every week when we had a reserve team . We have had quite a lot of rain this last few weeks and the sun is low and grass does not grow in the winter so it is expected to get damaged to some degree.. And if someone wants to put a team together that in their words plays football you are on a looser when the winter sets in as all pitches will suffer

I saw someone on the Stockport forum saying the match should never have started it was that bad.

Surely that is hyperbole - it was perfectly playable considering the time of year.

Knowing the intricacies of your own pitch is one of many advantages of being at home so let Stockport moan all they like.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I saw someone on the Stockport forum saying the match should never have started it was that bad.

Surely that is hyperbole - it was perfectly playable considering the time of year.

Knowing the intricacies of your own pitch is one of many advantages of being at home so let Stockport moan all they like.

It's a case of sour grapes, it was the same for both teams, and as mentioned, the Stockport pre-match churned it up a bit more.

Has the slope been removed ?

Quoted from grimps

Has the slope been removed ?

Ages ago, I think Jolley had it taken out.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Ages ago, I think Jolley had it taken out.

Teams were complaining about it so we had to remove it I think but it was under Jolley.

I was talking to one of the groundsmen last season and he said that the work the pitch really needs will cost £500k.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Teams were complaining about it so we had to remove it I think but it was under Jolley.

I was talking to one of the groundsmen last season and he said that the work the pitch really needs will cost £500k.

In the modern game, pitches seem to be an area of constant work and development. Understandable really but again, with only a finite amount of cash available, those obsessed with us making plenty of signings would do well to remember that other areas need investment too.

BP has always been decent but the myth that it’s always been a bowling green is an odd one. I remember back in about 2002/3 i officiated a behind closed doors game, early season and the pitch wasn’t too great then…

I’m sure investment in the pitch will be made but weather and so on has clearly taken it’s toll…

If only there was an update from the groundsman recently… 🤣

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I saw someone on the Stockport forum saying the match should never have started it was that bad.

Surely that is hyperbole - it was perfectly playable considering the time of year.

Knowing the intricacies of your own pitch is one of many advantages of being at home so let Stockport moan all they like.

Bit of a parallel with the Stockport team really.
Pay excrement loads of money to relay the pitch so it can be one of the best in the league.
Spend excrement loads of money on players and their wages so they can be one of the best in the league.
Not worked out that way for either of us.

Furloughing the groundsman was definitely a great idea though…

FFS, we are a few yards from the sea, the water table is high anyway and it's been tipping down for days on end. We have fewer games frozen off than others. Why the feck didn't Mansfield spend a £100k on warm air blowers to get the Field Mill game on...? Stockport can feck off with that bollox.

The Stockport fans can suck a fart out me árse - it wasn’t long back they used to have 30 fat slobbering rugby union players rolling about on their pitch every fortnight. Never seen anything like the state of their pitch back then, was like the Somme!

It’s League 2 . When BP is graced by players who never miscontrol the ball or misplace a pass then a perfect pitch may be needed.

The pitch didn't seem to affect their ability to whack the ball into our box over and over again, which seemed to make up the bulk of their play. If they were some kind of a slick passing team, it might have been an issue but they didn't look like that on yesterday's performance.

Very noticeable that we whacked it upfield a lot more than usual as well, despite the lack of height up front. A tactic to push them deeper so they couldn't play a bit further up the field? Whatever the case, it seemed to work OK for us. Just a pity that our final cross or pass wasn't good enough on the occasions we played through them.

Quoted from Maringer

The pitch didn't seem to affect their ability to whack the ball into our box over and over again, which seemed to make up the bulk of their play. If they were some kind of a slick passing team, it might have been an issue but they didn't look like that on yesterday's performance.

Very noticeable that we whacked it upfield a lot more than usual as well, despite the lack of height up front. A tactic to push them deeper so they couldn't play a bit further up the field? Whatever the case, it seemed to work OK for us. Just a pity that our final cross or pass wasn't good enough on the occasions we played through them.

The conditions were too risky for playing out from short goal kicks. Shoving Efete higher up to receive goal kicks is better than either McAtee or Kiernan battling with huge centre halves. Loved it when he flattened a couple of Stockport defenders. He was penalised of course but when they did it to Harry it was Harry who got the card!

The same tactic moves us up the pitch to win throws now that we know about Maher's capabilities.

I did find it amusing that Waterfall congratulated Efete on that particular challenge, giving him a high five! Just a clumsy collision, but as a defender, it's always good to give an opponent or two a good clout, even if inadvertently!

I actually thought that Clifton's probably was a booking - he lost track of where the ball was and clumsily jumped into their player in the challenge because of it.

Quoted from Maringer

I did find it amusing that Waterfall congratulated Efete on that particular challenge, giving him a high five! Just a clumsy collision, but as a defender, it's always good to give an opponent or two a good clout, even if inadvertently!

I actually thought that Clifton's probably was a booking - he lost track of where the ball was and clumsily jumped into their player in the challenge because of it.

Yes, the high five was part of an ongoing narrative of support for Efete from the bench via 'Greeny' and the Lower Findus. Efete didn't lack for advice and I daresay he was similarly encouraged from the Main Stand in the second half.

Our midfielders were so keen to challenge for first and second balls at times that they were knocking each other out the way. Perhaps not the conditions or tactics that Hunt could have easily adjusted to.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Teams were complaining about it so we had to remove it I think but it was under Jolley.

I was talking to one of the groundsmen last season and he said that the work the pitch really needs will cost £500k.

This is almost a snapshot of the problem. After 20 years of penny pinching, we are so far behind in terms of infrastructure, training facilities and things like the pitch that it will take more than 1.5 seasons to get us level, let alone 'best in class' with most sides in L2. I bet we're in the bottom 20% of L2 for non-playing facilities such as the pitch and so on.

Quoted from Mariner_09

This is almost a snapshot of the problem. After 20 years of penny pinching, we are so far behind in terms of infrastructure, training facilities and things like the pitch that it will take more than 1.5 seasons to get us level, let alone 'best in class' with most sides in L2. I bet we're in the bottom 20% of L2 for non-playing facilities such as the pitch and so on.

  

Quoted from ska face

The Stockport fans can suck a fart out me árse - it wasn’t long back they used to have 30 fat slobbering rugby union players rolling about on their pitch every fortnight. Never seen anything like the state of their pitch back then, was like the Somme!

We don’t all slobber!

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

We don’t all slobber!

Forwards slobber - so that's 16 slobbering in the mud. Meanwhile, the backs stand around checking their hair and make-up in their vanity mirrors…

Quoted from Mariner_09

This is almost a snapshot of the problem. After 20 years of penny pinching, we are so far behind in terms of infrastructure, training facilities and things like the pitch that it will take more than 1.5 seasons to get us level, let alone 'best in class' with most sides in L2. I bet we're in the bottom 20% of L2 for non-playing facilities such as the pitch and so on.

I thought it wasn't that long ago our groundsman won an award for how good the pitch was, unless I dreamt that.

Didn't Stockport have a full pitch upgrade by Man City or Man Utd not so long ago so their ladies or u23 could  play there ?

Also when we had the "priveledge" to play on their World class bowling green we scored 3 so they should be thankful our pitch stopped us scoring more 😁