The pitch, a few observations.

Can anybody on this thread hold their hands up and say they know anything in detail about the Bloomfield Road pitch ? I would guess no.

As someone reasonably qualified to comment on this subject, there could be many reasons as to why the pitch is seemingly holding water.

If you think the groundsman has had the sprinklers on pre game , you are quite frankly dim.

I dont know Paul personally, but he has inherited a pitch from HB. Hes been in the job for around 2 months , give him chance.

There will be a reliance on less surface disruption ,that will be a key factor in the maintenance schedule , sometimes it isnt just as simple as people make out.

Saturday/Tuesday schedule also impacts how much a groundsman and his team can do.
If it isn't as simple, why did every other club in the North West get their game on?
 
You think the pitch was relaid last year that's not really good evidence your honour.

It's been a bit of rain this morning and got heavy around 3 calling the game off is farsical when over the years we've had a hell of a lot more tipped down and whoever is to blame someone is for tonight.

If that's the O's, Ex/new groundsman or those running the club it really doesn't matter but unless you learn from mistakes you won't move on.
Relaying the pitch is very different to digging out all the existing crap and and putting a whole new system in place.
A bit like returfing a patchy back garden.
 
The raised pitch in the old ground certainly had better drainage. I used to use one of the drain holes as a step to climb onto the wall behind the goal when I was 8 or 9. I wouldn't have been able to see over the wall otherwise. Or on tiptoes I could maybe see lots of legs 😂
 
I still think the pitch covers being put on would have ' saved ' last nights game particularly if accompanied by a team being on hand to brush away / remove excess water

Whether the extent of and impact of the deluge was foreseeable is another matter

I suspect they didn't think the downpour would have been quite so heavy
TAM,
I fully agree more could have been done (putting covers on, forking/hollow tining etc), but i don't believe the issue lies with the old groundsman or board for not completely relaying the pitch last summer as there was not enough time. The current groundsman should be the one answering the difficult questions over last night.
 
Brought back memories of late December 2006.
It lashed it down for days including the day we were to playDoncaster Rovers.
We were sat in the No 1 club ( ex Casino) when they announced that a pitch inspection
had deemed the pitch OK. Conditions did ease at KO.
We won 2-0 and a rare Christmas back to back home win. We had beaten Carlisle on Boxing Day also in horrendous conditions. The poor Carlisle fans Sat in the Gene Kelly stand.
 
If it isn't as simple, why did every other club in the North West get their game on?
Each pitch has its different problems.

Its poor that we are the only casualty , but to lay the blame squarely at the new groundsman? Has he had enough time to rectify issues in the middle of winter ?

Think i am right in saying pitch has issues with casting worms. Carbendazim, which is used to control worms in turf, was banned a few years ago in the UK. These smear when mown, sometimes affects water movement down below.

Previous regime may have had an excessive fertilisier programme ? in turn could cause issues with surface layer and water movement.
 
I don't know if anyone watched Dirty Leeds yesterday? They relaid their pitch about 3 weeks ago (with turf that was in standby for Spurs). It played like an ice rink (slippy, not frozen!!)
They have a complete pitch overall planned for this summer at a cost of £2.5m.
 
Well I think the groundsman is an imposter, he’s out of his depth. Posting on Twitter that he’s working on the ground with his mrs is rather unprofessional in my eyes. It’s ever likely he’s deleted his account.
 
I'm sure if it is the groundsman's fault there will be repercussions as Simon Sadler doesn't suffer fools gladly.
I don't live in Blackpool so I don't know how long it rained today or how how hard it rained.
You can't blame him for heavy and prolonged rain though.
I honestly don't think covers for rain are solution.
If the pitch was watered this afternoon (or was TAM just being mischievous) then that is a serious misjudgement.
I can't remember when we had a match called off for a waterlogged pitch prior to this season. Has something happened to the make up of the surface since the 2019 renovations that is the underlying cause?
Or has Paul failed to do something during the heavy rain that his predecessors have done more efficiently?
Charlton about 3yrs ago, same day as Sir Jims memorial... match cancelled due to South West corner flooding
 
Well I think the groundsman is an imposter, he’s out of his depth. Posting on Twitter that he’s working on the ground with his mrs is rather unprofessional in my eyes. It’s ever likely he’s deleted his account.
Fcuk me , Roped his family in to help re-cover the pitch on a sunday in the middle of a pandemic. Sackable offence! If he didnt post on twitter you wouldnt have had the slightest clue.

Bloke cant do right for wrong.
 
We are lucky to have so many talented posters, aren't we? Moving effortlessly from macro economics to epidemic control and then on to ground maintenance. And remote ground maintenance at that. 😏
I have inside knowledge so in a good spot to comment.

- Isn't qualified to the correct level.
- Wasn't even there for the majority of yesterday
 
Fcuk me , Roped his family in to help re-cover the pitch on a sunday in the middle of a pandemic. Sackable offence! If he didnt post on twitter you wouldnt have had the slightest clue.

Bloke cant do right for wrong.
If he’d of put them on properly in the first place he wouldn’t have had to rope them in. Shows how much notice he takes of the weather forecast.
 
Something clearly not right with the pitch, but I'm sure if it had been an easy fix would have been done after the last postponment.

So to blame someone who has just been in the job a couple of months for an issue which seems structural seems very harsh to me.
 
I wonder when the drainage was last replaced??
Saw pictures in the 50s of it being replaced, wondered if it has since??
 
i know it might sound stupid but the pitch could be slightly below sea level has anyone checked this out as knowing karl and his dodgy builders you never know
 
I don't know if anyone watched Dirty Leeds yesterday? They relaid their pitch about 3 weeks ago (with turf that was in standby for Spurs). It played like an ice rink (slippy, not frozen!!)
They have a complete pitch overall planned for this summer at a cost of £2.5m.
Souness was slating it, saying people would suffer groin injuries.
 
I'm certainly not an expert although I did once visit the Sports Turf Research Institute during the Oyston years. Karl had actually called them in for advice but it didn't progress very far when he found he had to pay them.
If you go back to the o/p you will also see I have put forward the case for the defence.
It's a good point made about the company that was brought in back in 2019 and I wonder what sort of guarantee they provided in support of their brave words of having sorted the pitch out.
And other report on the 2020 work.
I'm sure by now the Board will know exactly what is going wrong and it will be put right asap.
 
I have inside knowledge so in a good spot to comment.

- Isn't qualified to the correct level.
- Wasn't even there for the majority of yesterday
So what ‘qualifications’ does he need and why have two football league clubs seen fit to hire him if he doesn’t have them?
 
Not sure if you saw my post last night on similar thread, The Pitch. This is not a new problem .
I've seen your post now.
My only thought about what you were told is that the work you are referring to took place quite a few years ago so why is the problem only manifesting itself now?
You'd also think the flooding would be worse down the side of the ground and I'm not sure that it is the case.
However it may well be one of several problems that have now come to a head?
The only thing that is certain is that the Board will be embarassed by this, even if it's beyond their control, and it will be resolved.
 
Fcuk me , Roped his family in to help re-cover the pitch on a sunday in the middle of a pandemic. Sackable offence! If he didnt post on twitter you wouldnt have had the slightest clue.

Bloke cant do right for wrong.
I'll preface this with that I think any abuse directed at the new groundsman is completely out of order, but my thoughts on that whole thing are this:

I agree its not the most horrendous crime committed but you can understand why its coming under scrutiny as it was posted just before we've had four games postponed in a month. When I saw it originally I did find it a bit bizarre as even people who work at McDonalds and Subway are made to sign Social Media agreements in their contracts these days, people who work for football clubs really should know better as a picture of you working on a League One pitch with family members and a dog running around in the background doesn't reflect well on the club - it does seem a bit tinpot really.

You hit the nail on the head with the "if he didn't post it you wouldn't have had the slightest clue", working for a football club and if you want to share stuff like that it should be a locked twitter account so that it can't come back to bite you like it is doing. I'm sure if we hadn't had games postponed no-one would be batting an eyelid at it, probably find it endearing - but we've had a ridiculous amount of games off in a short period.
 
Well that's at least one rumour dispelled. The covers are permeable so using them to prevent waterlogging wasn't an option.
The Board appear to have accepted Paul Flynn's explanation about water movement through the pitch to the drainage which he had identified and shared on Twitter a few weeks back. So perhaps he's not quite the muppet some people think.
BFC are looking to invest in remedial work (including undersoil heating??) at a potential cost of £750k.
I don't want to say I told you so but I told Simon would have got to the bottom of this pdq.
Onwards and upwards.
 
At least they are aware of the issue and knowing Sadler he will make sure that it's sorted before next season.
 
Each pitch has its different problems.

Its poor that we are the only casualty , but to lay the blame squarely at the new groundsman? Has he had enough time to rectify issues in the middle of winter ?

Think i am right in saying pitch has issues with casting worms. Carbendazim, which is used to control worms in turf, was banned a few years ago in the UK. These smear when mown, sometimes affects water movement down below.

Previous regime may have had an excessive fertilisier programme ? in turn could cause issues with surface layer and water movement.
Well the previous regime did produce an excessive amount of bullshit. They had to put it somewhere.
 
You can’t really knock at the club at all if they’ve already got work taking place.
I imagine it wouldn't be a proper replacement of the system as that would require digging the pitch up, but maybe they're doing something which could improve what we currently have?

It's taking some getting used to the club taking measures like that instantly, the reason there are so many issues are from the neglect of the old ones so its quite a bloody contrast!
 
This is all very tinpot. We're supposed to be a PROFESSIONAL football club. I've never known it like this in 30 odd years
We had a milkman doing the job for the majority of those years pre-Sadler so you've either got a very bad memory or have some kind of axe to grind. You look at some of the clips from 2010 to 2018 period and we had one of the worst pitches in the league. It was either a mud heap or had more sand on it than Blackpool beach!
 
Back
Top