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New State-of-the-art Pitch at The Valley
Comments
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Looked bloody awful yesterday I thought. Definitely worse than when I was there last in December.4
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Anyone seen derbys pitch! Now that is awful0
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I think because pitch technology at the professional level is a million miles away from where it was, and because the club received a material grant to install a pitch that should be as good as any in the league.Stig said:
I'm glad you said that. I really don't understand what people's expectations are. We play football, not billiards. Why is everyone so obsessed with the pitch?Off_it said:Who'd have thought it, eh? A football pitch in mid-March that bobbled a bit.
peoples expectations might be that we have a pitch that matches others in our division. Stockport a couple of weeks ago was the level we should be aspiring to. Stockport.
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If it didn't play better, it certainly looked better. I suppose we are putting a lot of seed down, Percy pigeon and his mates testify to that, and with the warmer weather, some of it is taking.1
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Getting back to their, er, roots!Red_Chester said:Anyone seen derbys pitch! Now that is awful
The Baseball Ground pitch was notorious.4 -
It was still patchy though. The grass seed on the patchy areas was attracting the pigeons though!MuttleyCAFC said:If it didn't play better, it certainly looked better. I suppose we are putting a lot of seed down, Percy pigeon and his mates testify to that, and with the warmer weather, some of it is taking.0 -
Nothing else to moan about maybe? Those that like to throw stones have run out of legitimate targets - for now, at least - so the pitch is something they can point the finger about? Just my guess.Stig said:
I'm glad you said that. I really don't understand what people's expectations are. We play football, not billiards. Why is everyone so obsessed with the pitch?Off_it said:Who'd have thought it, eh? A football pitch in mid-March that bobbled a bit.3 -
When they watered the pitch at half time you could see puddles reflecting in the sun0
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The reason people are discussing it is because we spent £1m (including grants etc) for this not to happen. Our pitch should still look pretty much like a carpet but it doesn’t and in my opinion the club haven’t adequately said what’s gone wrong yet7
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I'm not so bothered now we are winning, but last year that's the bit I enjoyed the most.killerandflash said:
It was still patchy though. The grass seed on the patchy areas was attracting the pigeons though!MuttleyCAFC said:If it didn't play better, it certainly looked better. I suppose we are putting a lot of seed down, Percy pigeon and his mates testify to that, and with the warmer weather, some of it is taking.2 -
They drowned the pitch 15 minutes before kick off. More like a hose on it than sprinklersBigRedEvil said:When they watered the pitch at half time you could see puddles reflecting in the sun0 -
It's not up to them to know exactly what's "gone wrong" anyway, that would be the company responsible for laying it in the first place.fenaddick said:The reason people are discussing it is because we spent £1m (including grants etc) for this not to happen. Our pitch should still look pretty much like a carpet but it doesn’t and in my opinion the club haven’t adequately said what’s gone wrong yet
I reckon, like Wembley and other grounds in recent years, it needs time to bed in and mature, and unfortunately that's not time we had in the summer, in an ideal world you'd probably want to lay it, bed it in and not actually play on it for a good 3-6 months0 -
Which the club could have just about done if they hadn’t organised a pre season fixture on it.sam3110 said:
It's not up to them to know exactly what's "gone wrong" anyway, that would be the company responsible for laying it in the first place.fenaddick said:The reason people are discussing it is because we spent £1m (including grants etc) for this not to happen. Our pitch should still look pretty much like a carpet but it doesn’t and in my opinion the club haven’t adequately said what’s gone wrong yet
I reckon, like Wembley and other grounds in recent years, it needs time to bed in and mature, and unfortunately that's not time we had in the summer, in an ideal world you'd probably want to lay it, bed it in and not actually play on it for a good 3-6 months
The lack of comms is a general bugbear of mine about the club at the moment, they never communicate about when things go wrong and I think that makes it hard to build trust. Aware that’s a football wide issue though2 -
Well we are winning on it so all good.0
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People seem to have a very short memory.
Several seasons where the Valley pitch looked more like a ploughed field caused by the collapsed drains.
Before that we would be playing on vast expanses of mud at this time of year.
The new pitch needs to be improved but it's producing good football.1 -
Did the club ever confirm exactly how much?fenaddick said:The reason people are discussing it is because we spent £1m (including grants etc) for this not to happen. Our pitch should still look pretty much like a carpet but it doesn’t and in my opinion the club haven’t adequately said what’s gone wrong yet
I know that is the perceived wisdom and may well be true but not sure I’ve seen the club put a number to it.There was some suggestion here we skimped on some aspect of the pitch though have no idea if that is true or just fiction.0 -
And then the club during the summer of 2014 fixed the issue with the drains and laid a brand new surface which still looked like a bowling green by the end of that season.Crusty54 said:People seem to have a very short memory.
Several seasons where the Valley pitch looked more like a ploughed field caused by the collapsed drains.
Before that we would be playing on vast expanses of mud at this time of year.
The new pitch needs to be improved but it's producing good football.1 -
And our current football is hardly a passing game. I've no complaints as it's effective, but it relies a lot on crosses and set pieces, rather than slick passing on the deck.shirty5 said:
And then the club during the summer of 2014 fixed the issue with the drains and laid a brand new surface which still looked like a bowling green by the end of that season.Crusty54 said:People seem to have a very short memory.
Several seasons where the Valley pitch looked more like a ploughed field caused by the collapsed drains.
Before that we would be playing on vast expanses of mud at this time of year.
The new pitch needs to be improved but it's producing good football.
For comparison this is the pitch LAST March. It look way better than it does now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-VpCuXyr-U 0 -
Charlie Methven said they "did it" too late.fenaddick said:The reason people are discussing it is because we spent £1m (including grants etc) for this not to happen. Our pitch should still look pretty much like a carpet but it doesn’t and in my opinion the club haven’t adequately said what’s gone wrong yet0 - Sponsored links:
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yes I remember many many years ago we won 0-1 and Stuart Leary scored and the ball almost stuck in the mud before it trickled over the line.Airman Brown said:
Getting back to their, er, roots!Red_Chester said:Anyone seen derbys pitch! Now that is awful
The Baseball Ground pitch was notorious.0 -
Can’t believe they have actually taken bookings to use the pitch pre season for charity games etc and are actively continuing to do so.
I admit I know nothing about how that would effect the pitch in any way but it doesn’t take much to assume that it won’t do it any good.🤨🤔🙄0 -
It was, according to senior people at the club, started too late, we then played Pompey before it was fully ready plus the weather has been unusually wet and cold.
The club got an external consultant in to find out what had gone wrong, showing that they do see it as important, as the contractors blamed the ground staff and the ground staff blamed the contractors.
The plan was to get the whole pitch covered with a tent and lights to promote growth but with all the men's and women's fixtures it has been difficult to find the extended period of time needed for that to work.
TBH I think yesterday was the first time I've noticed the ball bobble badly.
We are winning at home so it doesn't appear to he hindering us too much but if the club has spent £1.2 (figure from Sandgaard era) of which £700k was a grant from the FA on the proviso that the women play there for the next 10 years and so we can also host U21 games there then it is reasonable to say that the new pitch hasn't lived up to it's billing YET.
The positive news is that where as the previous owner looked into doing it but baulked at the additional £500k to be spent the US owners didn't. I'm hearing similar regarding getting Cat 1 for the academy.
With luck and more work the pitch should be better next season.14 -
And all of that begs the question as to why we find that out here and not from the club. They don’t even need to go into much detail. A short statement saying “The club are aware of issues regarding the pitch and have hired independent consultants to ensure it is better for next season”7
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The pitch is definitely never as good as it was and we have had some very wet winters so no, I don’t accept that it’s been laid properly. Either the wrong seed or the wrong soil sand mix. I would definitely be asking the contractor to be doing some kind of remedial work because after one season that is not good and yes it does affect the football the worse it gets. £1 million is a lot of money. I need to be disappointed with the end result0
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Has it really been unusually cold and wet ? If pushed I would have said a bit mild this winter compared to expectations.Henry Irving said:It was, according to senior people at the club, started too late, we then played Pompey before it was fully ready plus the weather has been unusually wet and cold.
The club got an external consultant in to find out what had gone wrong, showing that they do see it as important, as the contractors blamed the ground staff and the ground staff blamed the contractors.
The plan was to get the whole pitch covered with a tent and lights to promote growth but with all the men's and women's fixtures it has been difficult to find the extended period of time needed for that to work.
TBH I think yesterday was the first time I've noticed the ball bobble badly.
We are winning at home so it doesn't appear to he hindering us too much but if the club has spent £1.2 (figure from Sandgaard era) of which £700k was a grant from the FA on the proviso that the women play there for the next 10 years and so we can also host U21 games there then it is reasonable to say that the new pitch hasn't lived up to it's billing YET.
The positive news is that where as the previous owner looked into doing it but baulked at the additional £500k to be spent the US owners didn't. I'm hearing similar regarding getting Cat 1 for the academy.
With luck and more work the pitch should be better next season.However more intrigued by the reference to Cat 1. Didn’t many on here say we didn’t get it and won’t get it because the authorities don’t really want to award to teams outside the PL?0 -
The club’s comms are atrocious and have been for a very long while, although it comes from the management culture under successive ownerships not the staff. It is absolutely about building trust. Time to break the cycle.fenaddick said:And all of that begs the question as to why we find that out here and not from the club. They don’t even need to go into much detail. A short statement saying “The club are aware of issues regarding the pitch and have hired independent consultants to ensure it is better for next season”I’m not talking about the day to day football stuff but anything that involves the non-football hierarchy. Might as well just put up a big sign and say “none of your business”.7 -
Do you want them to provide a daily update at 5:30pm everyday with a details of what every member of staff did at what exact time during the day? You seem to be looking for tiny little things to criticise now. Why don't you give us a list of all the bugbears you have and I'm sure they'll write you a personal letter of apology.Airman Brown said:
The club’s comms are atrocious and have been for a very long while, although it comes from the management culture under successive ownerships not the staff. It is absolutely about building trust. Time to break the cycle.fenaddick said:And all of that begs the question as to why we find that out here and not from the club. They don’t even need to go into much detail. A short statement saying “The club are aware of issues regarding the pitch and have hired independent consultants to ensure it is better for next season”I’m not talking about the day to day stuff but anything that involves the non-football hierarchy. Might as well just put up a big sign and say “none of your business”.0 -
Don’t be ridiculous. It’s precisely the opposite - it’s the big stuff that’s missing. The club doesn’t communicate any direction or position on current issues in the game or in relation to its own future through its media. It doesn’t introduce its owners or give them a voice and it doesn’t communicate anything about what is going on behind the scenes or who the decision makers are, save for the odd carefully controlled online event. It doesn’t even tell you who the staff in charge of different areas are, and hides behind generic emails and fan advisers, etc.OhMyGodden said:
Do you want them to provide a daily update at 5:30pm everyday with a details of what every member of staff did at what exact time during the day? You seem to be looking for tiny little things to criticise now. Why don't you give us a list of all the bugbears you have and I'm sure they'll write you a personal letter of apology.Airman Brown said:
The club’s comms are atrocious and have been for a very long while, although it comes from the management culture under successive ownerships not the staff. It is absolutely about building trust. Time to break the cycle.fenaddick said:And all of that begs the question as to why we find that out here and not from the club. They don’t even need to go into much detail. A short statement saying “The club are aware of issues regarding the pitch and have hired independent consultants to ensure it is better for next season”I’m not talking about the day to day stuff but anything that involves the non-football hierarchy. Might as well just put up a big sign and say “none of your business”.
Clearly this reflects the approach of Duchatelet and others, who had no interest in engaging fans as a whole. It’s what a good chief executive would see as a priority, notwithstanding the individual preferences of shareholders as to their own profile. Ultimately it’s what makes us a club and fans more than customers.12 -
There seemed to be more grow lights on the pitch, in the pictures the museum published on Bluesky last week
https://bsky.app/profile/chathmuseum.bsky.social/post/3lkd4hhnuks2o1
