Pitch at Sheffied - surely there must be an FA rule ?!

[Robbie]

Watching the replay .. what a joke. They must be deliberately churning up that pitch thinking it is a home advantage? 

[Gloss White]

Is there only football played there?
What excuse do they have?

[NJFulham]

blackpool's is worse

[dannyboi-ffc]

Blackpool aren't anywhere near as big a club as sheff wed are. With the size of their ground they should really be providing better facilities than that. Its unacceptable, not sure what the weather has been like but there aren't many pitches that bad around.

If it is a deliberate tactic to unease the opposition then in my eyes that is cheating. You can do many things to gain home advantage but deliberately producing a mediocre pitch is crossing the line. I doubt thats what they did though, surely no club would stoop that low?

And to be fair their home form is poor compared to their form on the road which makes me think they dont like the pitch either.

At least we dug in and came away with a valuable point, it doesnt matter how ugly anymore, we just need points

[David Allen Crankshaw]

I was astonished when I got to the ground to see what a poor state the pitch was in. It reminded of what pitches were like in the eighties and before.

[Rhys Lightning 63]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

[MJG]

I was astonished when I got to the ground to see what a poor state the pitch was in. It reminded of what pitches were like in the eighties and before.

But didn't the whole place feel like the 80's? The ramshackle stands where terraces used to be,  the old stands on four sides,  cobwebs holding the place together. The pitch fitted it really.
Also for a partly sunny day it was bloody freezing in the away end and the pitch on the main stand side hasn't seen sunshine since it was built.

[MJG]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

I wouldn't go that far, but no excuse that a championship pitch was like that yesterday.

[westcliff white]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

God no, that's the end of football, there is no excuse for a championship side having a pitch like that, but to bring in plastic Is surely not the way to go. Would ruin football for me

[The Equalizer]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

It was tried 30 years ago and binned for a reason.

[Artful Dodger]

Talking to a Wednesday pal of mine (I have a couple of them living in Yorkshire!) and they are as embarrassed about the pitch as anyone. Apparently the chairman has made it a priority in the summer to get a decent pitch installed but like us, they await the actions to back up the words!

To be fair, it didn't seem to be an advantage to them - they were as dreadful as us for the most part.

[FortCollinsFulham]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

It was tried 30 years ago and binned for a reason.

Not that I'm in favor of artificial turf (although it probably could help some lower division teams if they could afford it in the first place), but there have been vast improvements over the green painted cement that was the AstroTurf/artificial turf of thirty years ago.

[rweller86]

Most top-flight pitches are now a hybrid of grass and synthetic grass. Craven Cottage uses Fibrelastic.

[rweller86]

Most top-flight pitches are now a hybrid of grass and synthetic grass. Craven Cottage uses Fibrelastic.

But looking at the company who installed our Fibrelastic have Sheffield Wednesday on their client list...

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

No to plastic pitches from me. it becomes like a five-a-side game.

I would have hoped that the FA could assess the pitches via the referee assessor and require clubs that fall below a decent standard (taking into account extreme weather conditions) to upgrade their pitches or face a ban on paying transfer fees to bring in new players.

Also, and to help improve the standard of English football at lower levels, some of the PL TV money could be used to help lower division clubs improve their pitches and training grounds.

[fulhaman]

There no way that pitch is an advantage to them, did you not see how many injuries they got on Saturday and subs they had to do. A bad pitch = more injuries not worth it for a club

[filham]

This is why we should have astroturf plastic pitches. Everyone is the same, nobody has an advantage

God no, that's the end of football, there is no excuse for a championship side having a pitch like that, but to bring in plastic Is surely not the way to go. Would ruin football for me

Remember plastic has been tried and it failed dismally.

Most grass pitches are magnificent these days, Sheffield Wednesday need to explain why theirs is so bad.

[GrahamG]

A dreadful pitch should have suited us fine.

[love4ffc]

No to full artificial turfs thank you very much.  Have you seen the layers of skin it can remove when a player goes in for a good tackle?  Picture below of Sydney LeRoux after playing a game in the states on synthetic artificial turf.

Keep it real man, keep it real :048: 

 

[RaySmith]

When we were kids in the 50s/60s we used to play on 'cinder' pitches - of ashes. These were still used  right into the 80s - maybe there are still some today.

This was essentially like playing on a layer of rough gravel over a concrete base, and a sliding tackle could mean a bloody leg, and being a keeper left you bruised and cut all over.