Staying in Toon at NEWCASTLE!
Newcastle United, like most Premiership football clubs, have had to move with the times and provide their players with quality surfaces to play and train on.
LAURENCE GALE MSc reports
GONE are the days of bussing the team down to the local recreation ground, sports field or university pitch for training. Football is now full-on seven days a week with Academy players, youth squads, reserves and, of course, the first team all putting heavy demand on the facilities.
The club employ
seven groundstaff to look after their playing and training facilities. Eddie Rutherford, the stadium manager, is in overall charge of operations. Michael
Curran is the Head Groundsman and is responsible for all three of Newcastle’s playing facilities - St James’ Park Stadium, The Academy and the Civil Service Training
Michael Curran
Ground. Andrew Tulley is Deputy Head Groundsman and spends the majority of his time at St James’ Park. His responsibilities are to oversee all operations within the stadium and, in particular, the new lighting rigs that have been successful in keeping the turf in good condition throughout the winter months. The remaining staff are George Green, Darren Atkinson, Anthony Jackson and Andrew Bowes who split their time between Newcastle’s three facilities. With stadium pitches now constructed using reinforced sand/soil systems such as Desso, Xtragrass and Fibersand for a firm, fast and free draining playing surface, not surprisingly, club managers want their training pitches to be constructed to the same standard.
Up until 2002, Newcastle
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