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

[Sir Alec of good Stock]

Compared to the pitches on the current Big Match Revisited matches the Hillsborough pitch was in fantastic condition!

As a fan of a certain age, I loved the muddy winter pitches, particularly those covered in sand with snow piled up along the touchlines. Happy days!

Newcastle Falcons, Cardiff Blues and Saracens amongst others now have 4G pitches where the "grass" is long and covered in millions of tiny black rubber balls. It seems to work for Rugby as the "grass" is a lot longer than it would need to be for football and doesn't seem to cause burns although the bounce of the ball is totally different to that of grass.

[Logicalman]

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

Please no. The Ha Ha's had that put in 30 years back and everybody hated it, nothing good to say about it, and it was a relief when the FA decided that it should be removed. Far from 'nobody has an advantage' everyone would be at a disadvantage, including the fans watching crap footie on it.

The issue would be in that what regulations can you make for this? Given some of the winters, and also some of the ground-sharing that needs to happen for clubs to survive, where do you draw the line at the what state the pitch has to been in? I recall seeing Bradfords from the cup game recently, and that was worse than the one this weekend from the view.

[cmg]

Top-level teams, as public entertainers, deserve to have the best possible surface that modern techniques can provide. This was certainly not the case at Hillsborough and they should be required to do something about it.

Today it is possible to provide excellent, and consistent, playing conditions throughout the season almost irrespective of any but the most extreme weather conditions. It is unnecessary to turn to totally artificial surfaces. The kind of hybrid surface as used a at CC (real grass grown on a sand/someotherstuff substrate on top of a rapid draining base, provides for a decent surface all year round - although some of the enclosed stadia seem to have to replace the surface very frequently.

To say that football cannot be played on such inferior surfaces as at Sheffield is , I would say, something of an exaggeration. In the past grass featured on pitches on a less than regular basis and some sublime football was often played on mudheaps. In many ways these poor surfaces gave the very best players an advantage as their superior skills could be even more clearly defined against lesser mortals. George Best playing for us on some atrocious apologies for playing surfaces springs to mind.

Top-class players are simply not used to playing on anything other than perfect surfaces. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the billions of non-millionaire footballers, presumably still have to contend with the kind of mud baths that I used to enjoy (I think).

[Logicalman]

Top-level teams, as public entertainers, deserve to have the best possible surface that modern techniques can provide. This was certainly not the case at Hillsborough and they should be required to do something about it.

Today it is possible to provide excellent, and consistent, playing conditions throughout the season almost irrespective of any but the most extreme weather conditions. It is unnecessary to turn to totally artificial surfaces. The kind of hybrid surface as used a at CC (real grass grown on a sand/someotherstuff substrate on top of a rapid draining base, provides for a decent surface all year round - although some of the enclosed stadia seem to have to replace the surface very frequently.

To say that football cannot be played on such inferior surfaces as at Sheffield is , I would say, something of an exaggeration. In the past grass featured on pitches on a less than regular basis and some sublime football was often played on mudheaps. In many ways these poor surfaces gave the very best players an advantage as their superior skills could be even more clearly defined against lesser mortals. George Best playing for us on some atrocious apologies for playing surfaces springs to mind.

Top-class players are simply not used to playing on anything other than perfect surfaces. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the billions of non-millionaire footballers, presumably still have to contend with the kind of mud baths that I used to enjoy (I think).

.. ahh, memories, and don't forget the leather balls and the laces when you nutted them!!  :033:

[cmg]

.. ahh, memories, and don't forget the leather balls and the laces when you nutted them!!  :033:

Ah yes. But then you'd use your superior skills, laser-like (although that hadn't been invented yet) eyesight and exquisite timing to ensure that the laces were facing away from you when your head met the ball. The heavily Brylcreemed quiff helped to cushion the blow, too. 082.gif

[RaySmith]

Those balls also weighed a ton when they were wet.

Well, they wouldn't be allowed today with the concern with head injury from heading the ball, on-going after Jeff Astle's death-though I don't think that heading a modern ball compares to heading  those old leather ones when wet.

But football was a tough game compared to today - a forward such as Best would come off the pitch after a game legs covered in bruises, but I miss the blood and thunder aspect of the game in those days.

The mud heaps  made for a bit of a lottery - and the skilful players like Haynes, Matthews or Best really were skilful to play so well in those conditions, while the tackle was still an important part of the game, with players like Jim Langley perfecting the sliding tackle in the mud.

Wingers, like Leggatt , Chamberlain, O'Connell or Key sped down the wing, past the lunging full back, hopefully, crossing the heavy ball to a big centre forward, such as Maurice Cook, who would have an aerial duel with the opposing centre -half, and the keeper - who didn't have the privileged protection of today, as we saw with the winning goal in that famous  Cup tie with Newcastle.

[David Allen Crankshaw]

I remember playing on the plastic pitch at Preston North End in the late eighties shortly before it was replaced and got some terrible burns on the knees when I hit the deck. Absolutely horrible.

[Logicalman]

.. ahh, memories, and don't forget the leather balls and the laces when you nutted them!!  :033:

Ah yes. But then you'd use your superior skills, laser-like (although that hadn't been invented yet) eyesight and exquisite timing to ensure that the laces were facing away from you when your head met the ball. The heavily Brylcreemed quiff helped to cushion the blow, too. 082.gif

I was a keeper in those days, so I got 'lucky' not having to head the thing, but I can tell you it was like catching a medicine ball (remember them?) when it came to shot-stopping. Many sprained wrists and broken fingers later and finally the lighter balls were introduced.

Anyone recall playing five-a-side at the Fulham baths?

[CorkCity]

.. ahh, memories, and don't forget the leather balls and the laces when you nutted them!!  :033:

Ah yes. But then you'd use your superior skills, laser-like (although that hadn't been invented yet) eyesight and exquisite timing to ensure that the laces were facing away from you when your head met the ball. The heavily Brylcreemed quiff helped to cushion the blow, too. 082.gif

I was a keeper in those days, so I got 'lucky' not having to head the thing, but I can tell you it was like catching a medicine ball (remember them?) when it came to shot-stopping. Many sprained wrists and broken fingers later and finally the lighter balls were introduced.

Anyone recall playing five-a-side at the Fulham baths?

Yes, I played at the indoor 5-a-side for Queens Manor, we won our age group one year. I still have a photo of Steve Perryman presenting the trophies.

[Holders]

Walsall at home in the 1970s, peeing with rain, pitch a mud-bath - Les Barrett sliding the ball in at the Putney end through about 6" of mud.

Happy days. Today's prima donnas don't know they're born.