Playing Surface

Worst condition since the 70s, if its down to the weather how is it that only BP in the league that's suffering

The tight fuccker’s probably been rationing grass seeds. Has each one individually costed.

Furloughing the grounds man was a prime example of Fenty not having a clue.

Hardly like the bloke earns hundreds of thousands....the one thing that needs to be keep pristine...

Quoted from Garth

Worst condition since the 70s, if its down to the weather how is it that only BP in the league that's suffering

The maintenance of a football pitch takes time and money.

https://www.pitchcare.com/news-media/maintenance-for-winter-turf-pitches.html

Quoted from ginnywings

We have had an extraordinary amount of rain this winter, as we did last winter. The ground is saturated. I could get into global warming and changing weather patterns, but that's another topic.

Add in the furlough of the groundsman, and the pitch is showing the effects.

Yes it really is that simple Ginny.

As for the disadvantage of playing on it, I would have thought it was to the detriment of the away side.

Older viewers may remember the Baseball Ground at Derby. It was recognised as the wettest playing surface in first class football. I went there quite a few times in the 60s & 70s when first Clough and then Mackay were managers. They won the league on that pitch. It was in the middle of town surrounded by back to back houses and the pitch was raised so it was about head height if you stood by the fence in the stand. It was 50% sand and 50% mud after the first autumn rains and it dried into concrete in the spring. Derby still had ball players like Archie Gemmill, Kevin Hector, Francis Lee, Bruce Rioch, Alan Hinton, Charlie George, Roy Macfarland .... In fact Charlie George was once asked about the pitch and said it suited good players who didn’t bother about it. As he put it, if you can play, you can play.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

Can we not just bring him back from furlough asap? Now there's a revolutionary thought.

Bit late now, the damage is done.

That should be the club motto.

The problem is the board hasn't changed yet. Until it does we are stuck with the current lack of investment and foresight of the current regime.

Cheap cheap cheap aka John Fenty

As Gary Neville said the pitch you train on should be exactly the same as the pitch you play on for the matches.

It’s not rocket science John and Phil ?

Quoted from Garth

Worst condition since the 70s, if its down to the weather how is it that only BP in the league that's suffering

It has been worse in the 80’s and the early 90’s as well.

Oddly enough taking the humps out don’t appear to have helped.

I’m sure the ground staff are trying their best but sometimes the elements don’t help.

Quoted from ginnywings

We have had an extraordinary amount of rain this winter, as we did last winter. The ground is saturated. I could get into global warming and changing weather patterns, but that's another topic.

Add in the furlough of the groundsman, and the pitch is showing the effects.

Not disagreeing with you about the amount of rain but that shouldn't affect BP as much as other grounds - BP is virtually on the beach so drainage has never been a major problem and a new drainage system was put in a few years back. Over the years we have seldom had games called off because of a waterlogged pitch (except when there's been pre match deluges) but more likely frozen pitches. We get far fewer games called off than a lot of clubs.

The current state of the pitch is due to lack of maintenance - my mum was very friendly with Frank Bridge and his family and she reckons that his wife used to say that he loved the pitch at BP more then her and he certainly spent more time with it.