As our fans will be painfully aware, we have had to postpone our last three home games as the playing surface has been unplayable.
Firstly, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment this will have caused. Postponing a game is the last thing we as a Club want to do. It is disappointing for our fans and sponsors, it is commercially detrimental, and it is not helpful from a footballing perspective either, given the subsequent fixture congestion it creates.
We recognise that fans want and deserve to be fully informed as to what the problems with the pitch are and what action is being taken to try to address them. We have set out below as detailed an update as we are currently able to provide, and we will endeavour to keep fans further updated as and when there are material developments.
As is well known, the Club undertook a major reconstruction of the pitch in 2020. Notwithstanding that work, we have subsequently experienced issues with the drainage of the pitch, particularly acutely in certain sections of the pitch (the centre circle being a prime example). These are not issues we would have expected to face given only a few years have passed since the work was done. We are very limited in what we can say regarding that prior work and any potential redress as we do not wish to prejudice our position in any way. What we can say is that redress is not certain, is not a short-term prospect and, in any event, does not help us in our current situation.
Although the pitch surface suffered last season, we were able to complete our matches relatively unscathed. In the summer we engaged an external consultant to conduct a full review of the pitch and advise on what was causing the drainage problems and what steps could be taken to ameliorate the position. The advice was that the drainage failure was occurring below the root zone and that, ultimately, only a full reconstruction would guarantee a permanent resolution. In the meantime, a surface renovation and ongoing maintenance should be carried out to manage the pitch as best as possible. Nothing indicated at that stage that the pitch would perform significantly worse in the 24/25 season than it had in the 23/24 season and, in fact, it was expected to perform better given that we carried out a full surface renovation in the summer of 2024.
During this season, leading up to the Oldham Athletic fixture, the pitch performed very well indeed. There was no indication at that stage that the pitch would fail at all and certainly not to the extent it has over the subsequent six weeks. What has become apparent is that certain parts of the pitch have become waterlogged over that period of time, and there is virtually no drainage occurring from those areas at all. The result is that for those sections of the pitch, even a relatively small amount of rain will result in standing water, which renders the pitch unplayable. It is this underlying problem (i.e permanent waterlogging and lack of drainage) which has resulted in us having to postpone matches in circumstances where it may not seem obvious to our fans why, given the weather conditions.
Without invasive action, it is extremely difficult for us to effectively drain those parts of the pitch. The Dryjecting, which we have referred to in previous updates and which is our best current option, can only be done in dry, thawed conditions, which we have not had over the past few weeks. To make matters worse, the persistent waterlogging of the centre circle has now resulted in that section of the pitch becoming unstable and potentially dangerous to play on, a situation that needs to be rectified before a referee is likely to declare the pitch playable.
We appreciate the above does not make good reading, but we do not wish to understate the seriousness or complexity of the issues we are currently facing as regards the pitch.
There are two key questions we now need to consider. Firstly, and our immediate priority, how can we find a temporary solution to ensure the pitch is sufficiently playable to enable us to finish the season? Secondly, how can we resolve the underlying issues with the pitch such that this ceases to be a recurrent problem for the Club?
Our immediate plan is as follows:
- As soon as conditions allow (which is likely to be Monday or Tuesday), external contractors will dig out a square covering the centre of the pitch to a depth of 200mm. They will replace this area with sand and new turf and then restitch this area. This is an extremely costly exercise, but – and we have consulted widely with experts in the field – this is the only way we think we can give this section of the pitch the stability it needs to be playable in any reasonable timeframe.
- Also, as soon as conditions allow, we will Dryject all other affected areas of the pitch to give the retained water the best chance of draining through.
Fans will be aware that we have a home game scheduled against York City on Wednesday 15th January. If we were not facing several days of below-zero conditions, we would be confident of having the above work completed in time for that match. However, given current conditions, we cannot be confident that will be the case and have made the decision to postpone the fixture so that the remedial work can be completed, as a six-day clear window is required to complete the works. The reality is that this fixture, as explained above, would be postponed anyway when the thaw occurs on Monday. We must also be clear with fans that even taking the above steps, at significant cost, will not guarantee a problem-free pitch to the end of the season. However, they should give us a fighting chance.
Looking longer term, it is clear that we need to resolve the underlying issues that are causing the drainage problems. At the same time, we need to be clear that a full reconstruction of the pitch will cost several hundreds of thousands of pounds. This is an enormous cost for a football club in the National League which has limited cash and is materially loss-making. We absolutely recognise that a functioning pitch is a fundamental requirement for a football club, and we need to deliver that. However, we are keen to ensure that we have explored all available options and consulted as widely as possible as to the underlying causes and potential remedies before we take any materially invasive action and/or commit to spending material sums. This is what we intend to do in the time available to us between now and the end of the season.
Finally, we have provided some further information below which may help to answer some frequently raised queries:
- Could you have anticipated this earlier and/or reacted quicker?
As mentioned above, there was no indication that the pitch was going to fail in the way that it has prior to the Oldham game. Even after the Oldham game, we played a match against Tamworth on Tuesday 17th December and it wasn’t until that game, and the subsequent heavy rain prior to the Boston United game the following Saturday, that it became apparent that the pitch had significantly deteriorated and become permanently waterlogged.
- Why haven’t rain/frost covers been used more extensively?
Firstly, the problems we have suffered with so far this season have been water and waterlogging related, so frost covers have not been relevant. Secondly, in terms of rain covers, the rain covers the Club owns do not cover the whole pitch. We have rain covers which are sufficient to cover certain sections of the pitch, and these have been used extensively, but they provide very limited assistance. In recent weeks, we have considered purchasing a full set of rain covers, but in consultation with external experts and other clubs, we have been advised that these would not resolve the problems we are experiencing, would not materially improve water ingress to the pitch and the money would be better spent on the steps we have identified above. We are advised that the only covers solution which would materially improve the position are of the type used by the EFL to ensure televised games go ahead, but these are prohibitively expensive and require a number of dedicated, trained staff to operate and are therefore unfeasible for us.
- Why couldn’t you have taken the remedial steps identified above more quickly?
Identifying problems with the pitch and understanding the pros and cons of the remedial options available is not a straightforward process, particularly when the cost of some of those remedial steps is very high indeed. We have acted as quickly as we can to consult appropriately, consider the options and come to a decision. We have not been helped by the weather conditions and the holiday period, which have meant that it has not been possible to carry out the Dryjecting yet.
Click HERE for details on the York rearrangement.
