All things Villa -e
even the undersoil heating is claret and blue! Graeme Farmer (left) and Karl Prescott with Steve Harper
surrounded by a running tack, which will incorporate stamina building gradients. The work is being undertaken by sports construction contractors John Mallinson (Ormskirk) Ltd working closely with Professional Sportsturf Design Ltd of Preston. The irrigation is being installed by Osprey Irrigation who are based at Wem in Shropshire. Mallinson’s successfully won the contract amid fierce competition on the strength of their previous Desso pitch installation work at Villa Park in 2006 as well as value for money considerations, suggesting that the new Villa hierarchy were no longer prepared to sacrifice quality for pure price advantage. Mallinson’s have a long and well established record within the sports industry and have worked for many of the most famous names in football. Their testimonial list reads like Who’s Who of Premier League clubs with Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Bolton, Blackburn, Derby County and Fulham featuring prominently. Learning to work with synthetic and
FibreSand pitches will be a steep learning curve initially for Steve and his dedicated little team, although expert advice will be readily available from colleagues at Villa Park and PSD Agronomist John Hacker. “We are already swatting up on the maintenance techniques required, but it seems fairly straightforward” says Steve.
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“My two Groundsmen were brilliant and supported me totally. I couldn’t have done it without them”
“I don’t anticipate any real problems in getting to grips with the new technology, it makes life much more interesting and is a wonderful opportunity for all of us. I have been at the training ground since 1801 when there was absolutely nothing here and to see such fantastic facilities appearing is just brilliant, I can hardly believe it really, but Martin O’Neill is a great guy and a natural leader, the confidence at Villa is fantastic and at every level thanks to him.” The total area of the site is
approximately 10 hectares and, in addition to the previously mentioned new developments, has three original natural turf full sized pitches, plus goal keeping area and three junior pitches, together with a recently installed ‘Field Turf ’ synthetic pitch with floodlights. “The old pitches are currently in full use by everyone including the 1st team” Steve says, “and will be until the new pitches are commissioned. After that, all the old indigenous pitches will be used by the Academy, but we will still maintain them to the best standards possible. We are looking to improve the all weather capability by regular aeration and decompaction together with considering sand banding. Last year we called in local contractor, Phil Day, to strip off the turf to 25mm depth to get rid of thatch build-up and help level the surfaces, before applying 700 tonnes of
rootzone and reseeding. This has made a big difference to the playability. However, soil compaction remains a problem with such high current usage, and regular maintenance is essential to sustain a playable surface in heavy rainfall periods.”
The annual maintenance and end of season renovation programme has always traditionally been done ‘in house’ by Steve and his team. It consists of scarifying the pitches followed by verti- draining and rotary decompaction. Topdressing (70/30) is then applied at 60 tonnes per full sized pitch before drag- matting to incorporate the sand into the rootzone area. The pitches are then overseeded from three directions and fertilised before further drag-matting to complete the work.
“Last year we had a deluge of rain immediately afterwards which washed away all the seed” reflects Steve sadly. “It was very disheartening and I despaired of getting the pitches ready in time with the worst weather conditions I could ever remember closing in for weeks on end. We worked incredibly hard to dodge the weather and keep going and it paid off in the end as we were eventually rewarded with really good grass cover. My two groundsmen, Graeme and Karl, were brilliant and supported me totally, I just couldn’t have done it otherwise.” Annual fertiliser applications begin in
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