biggayal0 Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 The state of the fir park pitch has came back to haunt us lads and may just have cost us the chance of European football this season. I know Fraser is not the best and not as good as Ruddy but the pitch should take the blame for the first goal. The thin layer of turf we have clearly laid over a sand bed is like playing fitba on a rug on laminate flooring. The second goal for united can also be blamed on the pitch, Coke slips again on the pitch and Daley gets away to score the goal. The 3rd goal was just good play by united. Let’s get of the players backs especially Fraser, I know he’s not great but think most players would have problems on that pitch, every other club in the league has complained about it, now we must see it has cost us this game. Minus those two goals we’d possibly have won 2-1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 The difference was there to see on tuesday night when we passed celtic off the park for long spells, then come back to fir park yesterday with balls bobbling and bouncing all over the place. blaming individuals (murphy v falkirk and now fraser)glosses over the fact that our own club created our biggest problem with that disgrace of a pitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCDave Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Humphrey slipped for the 3rd as well did he not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numpty Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 The pitch has hardly "come back to haunt us"... this season, at least, we made extensive (and expensive) efforts to rectify it, so it's not as if the club had been ignoring it, or tried to fix it on the cheap. In all that time, Saturday was the first time I would be inclined to say the pitch had a direct influence on the result. And if we do fail to qualify for Europe, it won't be down to that one game-- we've dropped plenty of other points home and away that we shouldn't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat_tony Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Humphrey slipped for the 3rd as well did he not? Yeah, he slipped on the half way line and from then on he never looked like getting back in position. All 3 goals were definitely contributed to, if not directly caused by the pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 The difference was there to see on tuesday night when we passed celtic off the park for long spells, then come back to fir park yesterday with balls bobbling and bouncing all over the place. blaming individuals (murphy v falkirk and now fraser)glosses over the fact that our own club created our biggest problem with that disgrace of a pitch I think the worst winter in 30 years contributed a bit as well and the stupid rule that you can't have a match postponed for weather, so you boil the roots of your pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAM Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Much as the pitch is a mess, it's the same for both sides and given it's our home pitch you could argue that we should know how to deal with it better. I never saw Utd taking any chances on the pitch like Fraser did on a few occasions. How many of wannabes would have given their right arm for a chance to play in the stadium no matter what the pitch was like. They should have been able to deal with it and didn't. I would say the third goal owed more to the fact that Humphrey isn't a right back than to the pitch (ie, he shouldn't have been bloody playing there in the first place!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 I think the worst winter in 30 years contributed a bit as well and the stupid rule that you can't have a match postponed for weather, so you boil the roots of your pitch. Totally agree, but why is it we are the only club going through this every year? all the other clubs who had the same winter as us are back playing on grass while we are still trying to introduce beach football to the paying public Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motherwell Football Club Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Humphrey isn't a right back than to the pitch (ie, he shouldn't have been bloody playing there in the first place!!) He is a professional footballer, he plays where he's telt. Was outstanding in at wingback against Celtic in the bounce game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Totally agree, but why is it we are the only club going through this every year? all the other clubs who had the same winter as us are back playing on grass while we are still trying to introduce beach football to the paying public Ours is a new pitch which never got the chance to lay down a very strong root structure. If we had had a mild winter without too much frost the roots would have strengthened and we would have seen the benefit next term. Falkirk, St Mirren and Aberdeen's pitches were all atrocious but being a couple of years older they survived the harsh weather better and could recover quicker. By the way grass is one of the hardest plants to kill with an ability to survive drought and flodd with equal ease, however boiling the roots is one good way of killing it. To be fair to the club they have tried their best and have re-laid parts of the pitch unfortunately for Michael Fraser he stood on one of the new turfs and ended up on his arse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trafficlight Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 We watched the game on espn and it was a sad sight, knowing a U.K wide audience would be watching open mouthed as the teams tried to play on no-man's land on the western front. The commentator was right when he joked the pitch was a throwback to the 60's and 70's. It isn't fair to the players or the fans, and to think all that money was spent on it just a year ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Ours is a new pitch which never got the chance to lay down a very strong root structure. If we had had a mild winter without too much frost the roots would have strengthened and we would have seen the benefit next term. Falkirk, St Mirren and Aberdeen's pitches were all atrocious but being a couple of years older they survived the harsh weather better and could recover quicker. By the way grass is one of the hardest plants to kill with an ability to survive drought and flodd with equal ease, however boiling the roots is one good way of killing it. To be fair to the club they have tried their best and have re-laid parts of the pitch unfortunately for Michael Fraser he stood on one of the new turfs and ended up on his arse. So will we need another new pitch this summer and what if we get the same weather come december? the pitch has been a mess for four months yet there seems to be very little info about what is going to happen next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggischomper Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 the pitch has been a mess for four months yet there seems to be very little info about what is going to happen next. More like since the South Stand went up (forced by the Govt). Didn't start off too bad but year on year it got worse - the touchline by the East Stand was well dodgy and had poor drainage even then. When I stopped going at the end of the '03-'04 season it was already pretty bad. Once the undersoil heating went in (forced by the SPL) it has deteriorated even more rapidly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'WellGall Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 yip i agree the spl have caused some problem, with the pressure of undersoil heating. Clubs in england dont need undersoil heating as they refuse to have it because it kills the grass and that was the groundsman at middlesborough that told us that. Plus the south stand blocking out the sun light doesnt help the grass grow. IMO the park will continue to have the same problems every year, it may need replaced as much as wembley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcalf Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 yip i agree the spl have caused some problem, with the pressure of undersoil heating. Clubs in england dont need undersoil heating as they refuse to have it because it kills the grass and that was the groundsman at middlesborough that told us that. Plus the south stand blocking out the sun light doesnt help the grass grow. IMO the park will continue to have the same problems every year, it may need replaced as much as wembley Andy Russell told John Chapman that many years ago, obviously word didn't get passed on. Chapman refused to countenance such a measure on Andy's advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosser1886 Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 IMO the park will continue to have the same problems every year. We better feckin not or the fines from the SPL will bankrupt us as a club. They have gone "relatively" easy on us up till now. If it is the same next year we will be royally shafted. Bottom line is it fecks our team as much as the teams that come visiting, it gives us no advantage whatsoever. We are all paying good money to watch alleged football and on that suface we are all being short changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnstone Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Unless its 100% fixed next season then I doubt I will renew my season ticket. This last half of the season, even though we have done well has been dreadful to watch. Its not the players fault or the management. Its just comes down to the worst pitch in the UK. Some may say that it was worse back in the day, fair enough, but you didn't pay a small fortune to get in back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadywellToi Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 Not something I'd ever noticed until I watched the highlights earlier, but what's the big circle in the Cooper goalmouth all about? Essentially the "Rockport boot and sand & seed" method of groundskeeping have to be finally dealt with. P45's are required Mr Boyle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burn_Broomfield Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 Not something I'd ever noticed until I watched the highlights earlier, but what's the big circle in the Cooper goalmouth all about? Essentially the "Rockport boot and sand & seed" method of groundskeeping have to be finally dealt with. P45's are required Mr Boyle. Our esteemed ground staff doing doughnuts in the tractor again. Those pesky kids, will they never learn their lessons about that tractor and the pitch.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Diggle Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 Unless its 100% fixed next season then I doubt I will renew my season ticket. This last half of the season, even though we have done well has been dreadful to watch. Its not the players fault or the management. Its just comes down to the worst pitch in the UK. Some may say that it was worse back in the day, fair enough, but you didn't pay a small fortune to get in back then. It's never been as bad as this. In fact it used to be a top notch playing surface. Got a bit boggy during the winter months but was repaired well for the relegation dogfight, sorry run-in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 So will we need another new pitch this summer and what if we get the same weather come december? the pitch has been a mess for four months yet there seems to be very little info about what is going to happen next. If we get the same weather this winter then the park is screwed. However, I don't know if we will need a complete new pitch as some areas look like they have survived betterthan others. The heavy wear areas goalmouths, etc have been turfed which should give it a better chance of gaining a grip. Unless we spend 6 weeks digging the pitch up again I think that the grass should get a better chance to knit together but that will still be dependant on weather, need a warmish, wettish period from mid May to mid July to give the grass a chance. However it is all dependant on weather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcalf Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 If we get the same weather this winter then the park is screwed. However, I don't know if we will need a complete new pitch as some areas look like they have survived betterthan others. The heavy wear areas goalmouths, etc have been turfed which should give it a better chance of gaining a grip. Unless we spend 6 weeks digging the pitch up again I think that the grass should get a better chance to knit together but that will still be dependant on weather, need a warmish, wettish period from mid May to mid July to give the grass a chance. However it is all dependant on weather It's covered in sand, hows the grass meant to grow through that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 It's covered in sand, hows the grass meant to grow through that? Same way as it grows after a drought or in a desert, with the right conditions and a bit of TLC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jym Bob Posted April 20, 2010 Report Share Posted April 20, 2010 The problem was that we watered the "pitch" before kick off. Is it just a coincidence that the three slips were all on the grassy bits of the park - a) Fraser in goal area b) Coke in penalty area - albeit with a thump from bruiser Daly c) Humph on one bit of grass in front of East Stand. On reflection United did`nt seem to have any problems - maybe we should invest in some of those snazzy yellow boots!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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