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.