Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Brend'Watkins on January 20, 2018, 11:08:54 PM
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Okay, it’s not quite in need of green sand yet but it looks in the worst condition it has for over 10 years. What’s happened or probably more to the point hasn’t happened?
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It seems to have all started since Christmas. I'd definitely not noticed it until Peterborough.
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I was thinking the same myself today - i know it had been pissing it down before and during the match, but it looked really rough.
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It's what happens when we let our best people be poached by the big clubs. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35607089).
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#Bruceball taking it's toll ;)
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We had a number of games including u18 and u23 since Xmas when it has been really wet. They have been trying to germinate new seed but even with UV the cold weather can't help. Needs a bit of sun, like we all do! We also lost grojndkeeper to PSG a year or so ago
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I was thinking the same myself today - i know it had been pissing it down before and during the match, but it looked really rough.
In seasons past we’ve had equally poor weather but the pitch has held up looking as good at the end of the season as it did at the beginning. It just seems odd that we have had a pitch which was always reputed as the best or there about to what we have now. I can only assume we have cut back on the maintenance of it.
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I was thinking the same myself today - i know it had been pissing it down before and during the match, but it looked really rough.
In seasons past we’ve had equally poor weather but the pitch has held up looking as good at the end of the season as it did at the beginning. It just seems odd that we have had a pitch which was always reputed as the best or there about to what we have now. I can only assume we have cut back on the maintenance of it.
I guarantee come May the pitch will look as good as it did in August
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I was thinking the same myself today - i know it had been pissing it down before and during the match, but it looked really rough.
In seasons past we’ve had equally poor weather but the pitch has held up looking as good at the end of the season as it did at the beginning. It just seems odd that we have had a pitch which was always reputed as the best or there about to what we have now. I can only assume we have cut back on the maintenance of it.
It's not always been one of the best - it used to be one of the worst - but for a good few years it's been top quality and now it's very poor. You can't blame Thatcher anymore either.
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Souters went bust in October apparently.
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It's what happens when we let our best people be poached by the big clubs. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35607089).
This. It was the traitor Houllier
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When we had a bad pitch, it was replaced and became one of the best around. Maybe this one is just at the end of it's lifecycle and may need replacing?
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You think ours is bad?! It's a carpet compared to the quagmire at the Ricoh. I was there for a Wasps game recently - how Cov play on that I've no idea.
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When we had a bad pitch, it was replaced and became one of the best around. Maybe this one is just at the end of it's lifecycle and may need replacing?
Pretty sure we replace it every year.
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Still remember my first night match at VP. Leicester in the league cup about 82. We won on penalties eventually. The thing that sticks in my mind though- also first match in the Holte- was walking off the stairs and seeing the pitch glowing bright green. It looked perfect and that was probably the moment I fell properly in love with Villa.
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I blame Brexit.
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i really noticed it. Its the worst I have seen for 10 years at least. The ball wasn't rolling along it properly, I noticed at half time there were only 4 or 5 people repairing it with forks when before there would have been a dozen or more. Its down to budget for me we have had plenty of poor weather in the past and the pitch has always remained perfect.
A few years ago I was through work talking to a guy from a sports turf company, then early Lerner days Small Heath's pitch budget was about £7k while ours was about £900k.
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There was standing water on the pitch before the game yesterday (about five yards in field from the dugouts).
Maybe the drains are clogged.
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Worst I've seen the pitch was second half of the 95-96 season. This was the last season before undersoil heating. Boxing Day Vs Liverpool was cancelled and by the time of the FA Cup semi between Man Ure and Chertsey it was almost Baseball Ground like in quality.
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Yep I’d say worst for over 10-15 years. As others have said too much Youth Football during the wet spell. I’m sure it’ll be sorted.
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It is 2 years overdue to be replaced. Relegation has meant it being put off as it is a huge expense to change. We play more games on it now at all levels and have had quite a long sustained period of wet weather. All of this has contributed to it starting to look worn out. The staff do a 24/7 job on it to maintain it. The previous guy did leave but we have won awards since so its not down to current personnel. As always it's a financial outlaybthat has had to be managed.
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I blame Brexit.
I blame Springsteen.
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I blame it on the Boogie
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I blame it on the Boogie
Well, you can't blame it on the sunshine.
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Last season former Villa Flymo supremo Jonathan Calderwood got an average score of 19.1/20 for the quality of the PSG pitch (which was voted best pitch in L1). This season I read that he is getting around 15.5/20 due to weather, frost and so on. He earns around €20,000 a month as 'pitch manager for the Qataris.
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Looks like we didn’t win the raffle for that robotic lawnmower someone was offering on here a few months ago.
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I haven't driven past Villa Park at night for a good while now.When I last did , you could tell the UV lights were on because of the orange glow.Maybe they don't use them anymore ?
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no more air traffic coming over dropping wee on the pitch before landing at bmx
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It's the smell of freshly mowed (?) Grass that always reminds me of VP
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considering how awful the weather has been it didn't look too bad to me yesterday.
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Isn't our pitch a combination of grass and synthetic fibres?
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It's what happens when we let our best people be poached by the big clubs. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35607089).
Spot on.
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Yeah noticed that yesterday, for the first time in years it looks patchy, can only assume it's down to the number of matches played at various levels combined with the poor weather we've had over the last six weeks.
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Isn't our pitch a combination of grass and synthetic fibres?
Yep. I think we were one of the first clubs to use something called a 4g playing surface. It's looked pristine ever since no matter what the weather has thrown at it so it's strange that it seems to have deteriorated so quickly. The club has won all the accolades going for some years now so hopefully it will be sorted out pdq.
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I blame Billy Graham
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Isn't our pitch a combination of grass and synthetic fibres?
Yep. I think we were one of the first clubs to use something called a 4g playing surface. It's looked pristine ever since no matter what the weather has thrown at it so it's strange that it seems to have deteriorated so quickly. The club has won all the accolades going for some years now so hopefully it will be sorted out pdq.
4g is the latest artificial pitches. The last time I was told anything about the subject was last summer and then the top pitches were a combination of four blades grass to one artificial.
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Can you play FA matches on 4g?
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Can't believe no one's blamed Bono. Cue CD
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Can't believe no one's blamed Bono. Cue CD
Leave Bono out of it. 😉
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Can you play FA matches on 4g?
VP has been 4g for years now.
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Can you play FA matches on 4g?
VP has been 4g for years now.
No it hasn't. See above.
This tells what the pitch was a couple of years ago. http://www.dessosports.com/sports/football/football-projects/aston-villa-uk
We also won the Football League pitch of the year for 2016-17 so God knows what's happened lately.
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Can't believe no one's blamed Bono. Cue CD
Leave Bono out of it. 😉
What does Bono know about turf maintenance? He even managed to miss out the final syllable of that well known hover mower in The Fly.
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Can you play FA matches on 4g?
VP has been 4g for years now.
No it hasn't. See above.
This tells what the pitch was a couple of years ago. http://www.dessosports.com/sports/football/football-projects/aston-villa-uk
We also won the Football League pitch of the year for 2016-17 so God knows what's happened lately.
OK. Just looked it up. It's a Desso Grassmaster pitch which contains over 20 million artificial strands and it was installed in the 90's. In all that time it's never looked so cut up as it currently does. The club is rightly proud of our playing surface. Maybe it's time for a new one.
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Yeah noticed that yesterday, for the first time in years it looks patchy, can only assume it's down to the number of matches played at various levels combined with the poor weather we've had over the last six weeks.
I'm pretty sure we used the Bescot Stadium and Hinckley's ground in days gone by for reserve games. Again, probably a financial decision we no longer play there.
If that being the case, should we not be using Bodymoor Heath for games played outside of the first team?
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Yeah noticed that yesterday, for the first time in years it looks patchy, can only assume it's down to the number of matches played at various levels combined with the poor weather we've had over the last six weeks.
I'm pretty sure we used the Bescot Stadium and Hinckley's ground in days gone by for reserve games. Again, probably a financial decision we no longer play there.
If that being the case, should we not be using Bodymoor Heath for games played outside of the first team?
I could be wrong (larry duff or another other Villa teams watcher might be able to confirm) but I think you have to play a certain number of 'proper' home games in the u-23s. I would also guess that it's cheaper for us to hire somewhere else than to open Villa Park up for games that only get a couple of hundred watching, and spectators aren't officially allowed at Bodymoor.
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Can you play FA matches on 4g?
VP has been 4g for years now.
Can barely send a text from inside Villa Park, let alone get a 4g signal ;)
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Didn't our head groundsman who won groundman of the year not's so long ago I read he went to work for PSG.
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I haven't been a fan of our perfect pitch of recent years. Maybe because I associate it with the sterile sanitised experience of watching football in the 21st century.
I thought it was great to see it cut up yesterday. It gave a nice retro feel to the game. It's how pitches should look in January in my opinion.
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I haven't been a fan of our perfect pitch of recent years. Maybe because I associate it with the sterile sanitised experience of watching football in the 21st century.
I thought it was great to see it cut up yesterday. It gave a nice retro feel to the game. It's how pitches should look in January in my opinion.
LOL ok, strange one but each to their own. Do you miss open terraces, empty seats in various parts of the ground, empty beer containers, urine running down the steps and fencing too? I'm kidding of course.
The Villa Park pitch has stood now for the past few seasons as one of the few things we can be incredibly proud of. It has been a spectacular playing surface and I wish that had come up in the chat with Wyness the other night. It's in very poor shape right now and needs addressing.
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Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse
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I have it on reasonably good authority that one of the big reasons the pitch has been so good in previous seasons, even during terrible weather conditions, is because of the special lights (UV?) to which they expose it along with the special plastic sheeting they put on it, which helps to promote grass growth and also dry it out. However, running the lights for the durations needed (almost constantly in winter) to keep it in pristine condition apparently costs in excess of £2m a year, so the need to trim the cost has meant that they will be running the lights more sparingly with the corresponding degradation in the playing surface. By all accounts, if we get promoted, it won't be an issue - we'll have the funds to go back to our previous practices, and the pitch will be maintained at billiard table levels. If we don't then it could be we have to get used to seeing football played on a poorer surface. I guess we've been spoiled over the years with the quality of the playing surface and, despite the victory yesterday, it saddened me a bit to see the state of the pitch as the game went on. I also think the heaviness of the pitch as it cut up was a contributory factor in our players seeming to get a bit "leggy" in the final quarter of the game (although I guess it's the same for both sides, but maybe other teams are more used to playing on heavier surfaces?)
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Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse
Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?
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Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse
Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?
Lack of air movement has a negative impact, that is why the San Siro struggled for a long time, why some pitches are put on rollers and moved outside when not being used.
Technology has moved on but it is more difficult to maintain a pitch in a sealed ground.
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Imagine if so called improvements were made to villa park and the corners were filled in - the pitch would end up potentially worse
Why? There are stadiums where the corners are filled in and the pitches are just fine. Why does one thing directly affect the other?
Lack of air movement has a negative impact, that is why the San Siro struggled for a long time, why some pitches are put on rollers and moved outside when not being used.
Technology has moved on but it is more difficult to maintain a pitch in a sealed ground.
The San Siro example is 30 years old. Camp Nou, Bernabéu, Allianz Arena, Emirates are all examples just off the top of my head where stadiums have excellent pitches combined with stadium designs we are discussing. Even Wembley one they figured that out is now a good playing surface.
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I always remember back in the day a mate's dad saying to us on the way back from a game that had been played on the patch of rolled mud that was the Villa Park pitch circa 1979, that the reason they had fish ponds and artificial lakes on the Aston Lower Grounds was because that's where all the local rainfall drained to. The fact that you then put a football ground on the site doesn't alter that basic geography. Fast forward forty years and, for sure, pitch technology, drainage and groundsmanship has moved on, but the ground is still at the bottom of a hill.
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Another factor could be that when Ansells closed the water table in this part of Brum rose considerably - because the natural spring water was no longer been drawn upon - smaller brewing companies have drawn water intermittently but I daresay years of dormancy and wetter winters have caused the water table to rise ever higher- just a possibility - perhaps the Dr could open up a Viila Brewery similar to Aston Manor ( previously owned by HDE) - producing " Albion Bitter" and "Small Heath Aleiance"
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It’s a symptom if falling out of the top tier. There will be plenty more things like this starting to heppen if we don’t go up this season. Training ground tech falling behind the top clubs, fewer new facilities in the ground, reduced maintenance, all that stuff... we need to go up.
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It's what happens when we let our best people be poached by the big clubs. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35607089).
Like we needed another reason to hate those ******.
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They did the lights and canopy. Groundmsb tweeted about 2 weeks ago they were reseeding
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Pics were on Twitter, it was dead exciting.
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Can't believe no one's blamed Bono. Cue CD
Leave Bono out of it. 😉
What does Bono know about turf maintenance? He even managed to miss out the final syllable of that well known hover mower in The Fly.
Maybe he is involved though, I mean who can forget the classic lyrics
A mole digging in a hole
Digging up my soul
Going down, excavation
If we spot any mole hills we know the truth!
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I was told that when they interlace the 4G synthetic strands in with the real grass it lasts approx. 5 years - each time it is cut a little more of the synthetic is lost over time.
Add this to excessive wet weather, we play a lot more games on it and over winter it has the under soil heating on more often it all contributes to wear and tear.
we have a full 14 days until we play on it again - depending on weather I would imagine that is good time to get it back as it was.
I also think that it is degrading then it could actually be in the favour of the "lower" teams that play a more industrial brand of football. Now we are getting into our stride the better the surface the better our players should be so the pitch should be a priority*
*although when we had the best pitch in league our football was utter gash ::)
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Can't believe no one's blamed Bono. Cue CD
Leave Bono out of it. 😉
What does Bono know about turf maintenance? He even managed to miss out the final syllable of that well known hover mower in The Fly.
Maybe he is involved though, I mean who can forget the classic lyrics
A mole digging in a hole
Digging up my soul
Going down, excavation
If we spot any mole hills we know the truth!
Are you confusing Bono with Jasper Carrott?
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I was told that when they interlace the 4G synthetic strands in with the real grass it lasts approx. 5 years - each time it is cut a little more of the synthetic is lost over time.
Add this to excessive wet weather, we play a lot more games on it and over winter it has the under soil heating on more often it all contributes to wear and tear.
we have a full 14 days until we play on it again - depending on weather I would imagine that is good time to get it back as it was.
I also think that it is degrading then it could actually be in the favour of the "lower" teams that play a more industrial brand of football. Now we are getting into our stride the better the surface the better our players should be so the pitch should be a priority*
*although when we had the best pitch in league our football was utter gash ::)
Maybe it was so good back in the days because we barely played on the ground. It's our new passing game that's causing all the problems.
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The pitch at 1 pm today
(https://thumb.ibb.co/hkMgao/6018fd00_f011_481e_a786_53d9c84e6cf4_1.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hkMgao)
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Looks the same as it did for the FA Cup semi-final in 1996.