I was replying to the poster below who thought they saw plastic being put in.
A Desso pitch is semi synthetic isn't it? Basically something like 5 blades of real grass to 1 plastic blade?
I am sure we have, in the past, had a pitch that is grown through a plastic mesh which helps bind the roots/soil. No idea if we still do. I remember seeing it on the OS. Maybe that's what the Op was referring to?
Thats what the groundmen told me, does Nathan post on here?
Wasn’t the poster @NWCorner something to do with the ground staff? Haven’t seen him post on here for ages maybe he’s the chap who works at Wembley and posted on social media 🤔.
Reproduced from the Facebook group since I hadn't seen it posted on here (apologies if it was) "...Right for people that don’t understand let me clear some things up. I currently work for the FA as a match day Groundsman at Wembley Stadium and I used to work on the pitch at The Valley when Roland Duchatelet installed the current pitch.
1) Groundsmen will have worked tirelessly to get the game on.
2) It’s not just a case of where were the pitch covers. Pitch pitch covers stops the pitch from freezing not stop it from getting wet. With Covid lockdown I suspect they are short on staff so difficult to have a group of people remove all the covers.
3) The technology underneath that pitch it’s good but in an ideal world there would be subbase systems that would remove excess water from the pitch.
4) Under soil heating isn’t a factor today as the pitch wasn’t frozen. Yes the pipes are not connected up but even with the under so heating on that would not have stopped today’s events.
5) Where the season ended so late the window of opportunity to renovate the surface or small. A groundsman typically has 10 to 12 weeks to get a surface ready for a new season. Unfortunately that never happened this year. Add in the factor we had no money so I suspect the budget for the pitch was very low.
6) Where I work at Wembley Stadium they have multiple bits of kit that encourages the plant to grow throughout winter until direct sunlight can cover the pitch and the temperatures are warm enough. If a club can afford to have pitch lights it’s a game changer. Unfortunately it’s very expensive and at league one level not efficient.
6) Charlton Athletic have a fibre sand based pitch with no sub air system to draw the moisture out which for our level and championship football is for all intense purposes absolutely fine. Unfortunately, when you get weather like we have to today or small periods of cold weather postponing a fixture is far cheaper than investing in hi the technical and sophisticated systems.
7) The ideal surface is ‘Desso Grassmaster’ this is where they stitch fibres into the pitch then the real plant/ grass binds onto this stopping the pitch tearing up. Again you’re talking millions of pounds to put this stuff in place.
8 ) The last time I looked one pitch lamp cost in excess of £250 per 24 hours. Therefore, to cover the whole valley surface you would need up anything up to 18 depending on how much area you are trying to recover. So that is £4,500 per day if you went full on.
9) I can assure you everyone the ground today would of done their best to get that fixture on."
Look! Can we have less common sense on here please?
No comments from Thomas on Twitter today, I wonder what his reaction to the postponement was?
I don't mean that I expect him to be blaming people, but clearly he'll want to avoid this happening again
I'm not sure how anybody can stop it raining. The pitch was unplayable today but it normally drains very well except by the tunnel.
Yes weather problems can be localised, but it wasn't as if loads of games were lost to the weather, only 3 in the EFL. And watching Quest, it wasn't as if the pitches elsewhere were quagmires either
And in the NL, even if you discount Bromley because they have a plastic pitch, both Dagenham and Barnet's games went ahead.
No comments from Thomas on Twitter today, I wonder what his reaction to the postponement was?
I don't mean that I expect him to be blaming people, but clearly he'll want to avoid this happening again
I'm not sure how anybody can stop it raining. The pitch was unplayable today but it normally drains very well except by the tunnel.
Yes weather problems can be localised, but it wasn't as if loads of games were lost to the weather, only 3 in the EFL. And watching Quest, it wasn't as if the pitches elsewhere were quagmires either
And in the NL, even if you discount Bromley because they have a plastic pitch, both Dagenham and Barnet's games went ahead.
If the pitch had not been waterlogged (which it clearly was from the pictures I've seen) and the game had been played it would have cut up badly and the surface could have been poor for the rest of the season.
I was walking around Charlton Park in the late morning. Many of the paths were covered in water because it couldn't drain into the grass which was waterlogged. Local enough to work out that the game would be off.
We have had a lot of rain in south east London recently. Sorry but the game needed to be postponed.
No comments from Thomas on Twitter today, I wonder what his reaction to the postponement was?
I don't mean that I expect him to be blaming people, but clearly he'll want to avoid this happening again
I'm not sure how anybody can stop it raining. The pitch was unplayable today but it normally drains very well except by the tunnel.
Yes weather problems can be localised, but it wasn't as if loads of games were lost to the weather, only 3 in the EFL. And watching Quest, it wasn't as if the pitches elsewhere were quagmires either
And in the NL, even if you discount Bromley because they have a plastic pitch, both Dagenham and Barnet's games went ahead.
No comments from Thomas on Twitter today, I wonder what his reaction to the postponement was?
I don't mean that I expect him to be blaming people, but clearly he'll want to avoid this happening again
I'm not sure how anybody can stop it raining. The pitch was unplayable today but it normally drains very well except by the tunnel.
Yes weather problems can be localised, but it wasn't as if loads of games were lost to the weather, only 3 in the EFL. And watching Quest, it wasn't as if the pitches elsewhere were quagmires either
And in the NL, even if you discount Bromley because they have a plastic pitch, both Dagenham and Barnet's games went ahead.
If the pitch had not been waterlogged (which it clearly was from the pictures I've seen) and the game had been played it would have cut up badly and the surface could have been poor for the rest of the season.
I was walking around Charlton Park in the late morning. Many of the paths were covered in water because it couldn't drain into the grass which was waterlogged. Local enough to work out that the game would be off.
We have had a lot of rain in south east London recently. Sorry but the game needed to be postponed.
I wasn't arguing that the game shouldn't have been postponed, but rather why our pitch was so much worse than others in London and the south. The only other postponed games in the top 5 leagues were in the Midlands (Northampton, Walsall and Solihull)
When you look at Doncaster's PPG being over 2 points a game, you can see how hard it is going to be to catch them if they sustain their form. If we win our next five, our PPG will be only 1.76. As we have shown though, a poor run brings this down significantly.
On a more positive note, when you are looking at 6th place, that is six teams and some of them are going to have poor or so so runs over 46 games. Looking back at previous full seasons (19/20 backwards) the PPG for 6th has been 1.58,1.54,1.58,1.6,1.5. This suggests we are currently on or just above that region.
But negatively, the PPG for 6th on a shortened 35 game season was 1.71. Significantly higher than the normal PPG for this place. This could be due to having less games to have a poor run, due to injuries or whatever. There is some logic here as Wycombe for example looked like they were slipping down the table as the season was stopped.
What definitely seems to be the case is that we don't want the season ending early and we can't afford any more poor runs like the last one. Pompey, and Posh ought to be our targets and we can't afford to lose against our targets.
When you look at Doncaster's PPG being over 2 points a game, you can see how hard it is going to be to catch them if they sustain their form. If we win our next five, our PPG will be only 1.76. As we have shown though, a poor run brings this down significantly.
What definitely seems to be the case is that we don't want the season ending early and we can't afford any more poor runs like the last one. Pompey, and Posh ought to be our targets and we can't afford to lose against our targets.
Sure, if the season ended today, our PPG is going to see us miss out. But so far it hasn't and right now, there's still every chance the season will complete.
Meanwhile, we definitely can't afford to lose games against our promotion/playoff rivals. If we are able to win these games, there's a good chance we can make up ground very quickly.
It's not only Charlton who can't afford poor runs ....... and you can bet there's going to be clubs around us that will have poor runs also. I mean Peterborough and Lincoln both lost yesterday; and Sunderland conceded a last minute equaliser.
Many twists and turns to come ..... after all there's half a season left to play.
When you look at Doncaster's PPG being over 2 points a game, you can see how hard it is going to be to catch them if they sustain their form. If we win our next five, our PPG will be only 1.76. As we have shown though, a poor run brings this down significantly.
What definitely seems to be the case is that we don't want the season ending early and we can't afford any more poor runs like the last one. Pompey, and Posh ought to be our targets and we can't afford to lose against our targets.
Sure, if the season ended today, our PPG is going to see us miss out. But so far it hasn't and right now, there's still every chance the season will complete.
Meanwhile, we definitely can't afford to lose games against our promotion/playoff rivals. If we are able to win these games, there's a good chance we can make up ground very quickly.
It's not only Charlton who can't afford poor runs ....... and you can bet there's going to be clubs around us that will have poor runs also. I mean Peterborough and Lincoln both lost yesterday; and Sunderland conceded a last minute equaliser.
Many twists and turns to come ..... after all there's half a season left to play.
Yes, that is the point. We are one of say 11 clubs looking for at least a top six place. They are not all going to go on great runs and some of them will have poor or so so runs like we have had.
Of course I have made no secret of who I blame for our poor run, but if we are not going to get rid of him, I am hoping that the signs of improvement continue. Our squad is easily good enough for top six. We need to go on a good run, and given the squad, that is something we should expect and yes, demand.
A reasonably settled and balanced team lineup = consistency (injuries permitting). Even after our very difficult situation at the beginning of the season, we should be achieving our potential of top 6.
A reasonably settled and balanced team lineup = consistency (injuries permitting). Even after our very difficult situation at the beginning of the season, we should be achieving our potential of top 6.
Reproduced from the Facebook group since I hadn't seen it posted on here (apologies if it was) "...Right for people that don’t understand let me clear some things up. I currently work for the FA as a match day Groundsman at Wembley Stadium and I used to work on the pitch at The Valley when Roland Duchatelet installed the current pitch.
1) Groundsmen will have worked tirelessly to get the game on.
2) It’s not just a case of where were the pitch covers. Pitch pitch covers stops the pitch from freezing not stop it from getting wet. With Covid lockdown I suspect they are short on staff so difficult to have a group of people remove all the covers.
3) The technology underneath that pitch it’s good but in an ideal world there would be subbase systems that would remove excess water from the pitch.
4) Under soil heating isn’t a factor today as the pitch wasn’t frozen. Yes the pipes are not connected up but even with the under so heating on that would not have stopped today’s events.
5) Where the season ended so late the window of opportunity to renovate the surface or small. A groundsman typically has 10 to 12 weeks to get a surface ready for a new season. Unfortunately that never happened this year. Add in the factor we had no money so I suspect the budget for the pitch was very low.
6) Where I work at Wembley Stadium they have multiple bits of kit that encourages the plant to grow throughout winter until direct sunlight can cover the pitch and the temperatures are warm enough. If a club can afford to have pitch lights it’s a game changer. Unfortunately it’s very expensive and at league one level not efficient.
6) Charlton Athletic have a fibre sand based pitch with no sub air system to draw the moisture out which for our level and championship football is for all intense purposes absolutely fine. Unfortunately, when you get weather like we have to today or small periods of cold weather postponing a fixture is far cheaper than investing in hi the technical and sophisticated systems.
7) The ideal surface is ‘Desso Grassmaster’ this is where they stitch fibres into the pitch then the real plant/ grass binds onto this stopping the pitch tearing up. Again you’re talking millions of pounds to put this stuff in place.
8 ) The last time I looked one pitch lamp cost in excess of £250 per 24 hours. Therefore, to cover the whole valley surface you would need up anything up to 18 depending on how much area you are trying to recover. So that is £4,500 per day if you went full on.
9) I can assure you everyone the ground today would of done their best to get that fixture on."
What a great post. Really learned something there. Thanks.
Comments
I was walking around Charlton Park in the late morning. Many of the paths were covered in water because it couldn't drain into the grass which was waterlogged. Local enough to work out that the game would be off.
We have had a lot of rain in south east London recently. Sorry but the game needed to be postponed.
is it one of those that’s great as long as it doesn’t rain
On a more positive note, when you are looking at 6th place, that is six teams and some of them are going to have poor or so so runs over 46 games. Looking back at previous full seasons (19/20 backwards) the PPG for 6th has been 1.58,1.54,1.58,1.6,1.5. This suggests we are currently on or just above that region.
But negatively, the PPG for 6th on a shortened 35 game season was 1.71. Significantly higher than the normal PPG for this place. This could be due to having less games to have a poor run, due to injuries or whatever. There is some logic here as Wycombe for example looked like they were slipping down the table as the season was stopped.
What definitely seems to be the case is that we don't want the season ending early and we can't afford any more poor runs like the last one. Pompey, and Posh ought to be our targets and we can't afford to lose against our targets.
Very therapeutic.
Sure, if the season ended today, our PPG is going to see us miss out.
But so far it hasn't and right now, there's still every chance the season will complete.
Meanwhile, we definitely can't afford to lose games against our promotion/playoff rivals.
If we are able to win these games, there's a good chance we can make up ground very quickly.
It's not only Charlton who can't afford poor runs ....... and you can bet there's going to be clubs around us that will have poor runs also.
I mean Peterborough and Lincoln both lost yesterday; and Sunderland conceded a last minute equaliser.
Many twists and turns to come ..... after all there's half a season left to play.
Of course I have made no secret of who I blame for our poor run, but if we are not going to get rid of him, I am hoping that the signs of improvement continue. Our squad is easily good enough for top six. We need to go on a good run, and given the squad, that is something we should expect and yes, demand.
A reasonably settled and balanced team lineup = consistency (injuries permitting).
Even after our very difficult situation at the beginning of the season, we should be achieving our potential of top 6.
And I believe we will.
I would like to see this fixture played in wellies.
Yawn.