FOOTBALL
have just written Liverpool but, for little League 1 minnows Shrewsbury, this is a big thing and the reason why there was a pitch invasion at the end of the Bristol game. Having just played Lincoln City on Saturday 11th January and Bristol on Tuesday 14th, we had the luxury of our very own ‘mid-season’ break of twelve days before the Liverpool game.
The pitch was repaired and vertidrained and then sprayed with our usual concoction, as described above, on the afternoon of the 15th. It was left alone the next day as it was pouring with rain and we applied a half rate of 3:3:12 Maxwell Premier on the Friday. The start to the following week for the game started with heavy frosts in the mornings, making it difficult for the lads to get the training ground ready for the players, but thankfully the frosts had lifted by the time they came out at 11.00am each morning.
The stadium pitch had its first cut of the week on Thursday 23rd. Despite not being cut for over a week, less than a quarter of a box of grass was collected, most of this from the goal areas where we concentrate our homemade lighting rigs. For anyone who
needs to convince their powers that be the benefit of artificial lighting, just get them to look at the goalmouths at our stadium. I’m also a strong advocate of leaving the pitch alone as much as possible during the winter months. If there is nothing urgent, stay off it. Please don’t carry out operations for the sake of it, or because you think the hierarchy expect to see you working on it. The advent of a big FA Cup match brings its own problems to a smaller venue, as we need to accommodate the TV bandwagon. Camera positions hastily erected around the ground using scaffold towers, the pundit’s studio positioned in the corner outside our garage under the west stand and the not-so portable advertising LED boards positioned on three sides that face the main cameras. The studio meant that we couldn’t get the tractor and vertidrain out if required, the LED boards sat in front of the surrounding irrigation pop-ups so essentially prevented the watering from the outside and the scaffold towers reduced seating capacity. Still, that’s the only downside of a game to be played live on BBC1 on a Sunday afternoon. I had some discussions with the manager, Sam Ricketts, about the preparation
of the pitch and it was decided that we would prepare as normal for the game. The lads double cut the pitch on Friday and again on Saturday prior to marking it out as light began to fade that afternoon. The forecast had been reasonably dry all week, but Sunday that changed and there was rain and showers starting from 6.00am until the game kicked off at 5.00pm. Despite this season’s games and the wet weather, we were pleased with the way the surface looked and played for the game, all the nice comments were well received and I think Martin Keown had said before kick-off that, for a League One club, the surface was about as good as it gets. It probably helped that the game televised just prior to ours was Tranmere v Manchester United, where clearly the club are having major drainage issues this season. Anyway, what was equally pleasing was the game, dramatic end to end stuff with most of the football played on the floor. Town pushing the mighty reds all the way to gain a replay at Anfield, the stuff of dreams! The 2-2 draw ensuring another payday for the club coffers. At the final whistle, the pitch was
PC February/March 2020
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