Contractors back to sort ‘dreadful’ pitch

STANLEY’S pitch contractors are being summoned back to The Crown Ground this week after the Reds’ surface was slammed by both camps following Accrington’s 0-0 draw with Aldershot.

Stanley chiefs had spent £70,000 over the summer to improve the turf, but a series of delays meant that the pitch was left weak and not ready for a game of football so soon.

Board members from Accrington and Aldershot had agreed that the game would be better off being played at the Shots’ ground, with the reverse fixture between the two taking place in East Lancashire on March 26 2011.

But the Football League snubbed the proposal, insisting the game take place as originally scheduled.

Aldershot manager Kevin Dillon was less than impressed, he told the Lancashire Telegraph: “That cost £70,000?

“I`m just thankful we have no injuries. It looked to me as though one of their lads (Rory Boulding) twisted his ankle quite badly at the end and that was definitely the pitch.

“The ball got stuck under your feet and it wasn`t bouncing.

“It was dreadful. They`ve had four months to get the pitch right and it`s inadequate.”

The pitch now has two weeks to show improvement, as the Reds have called back the pitch contractors who laid the surface, to make sure that it is playable for The Reds’ next home game, against Macclesfield Town.

“We`ve got the pitch contractor coming back now for the next fortnight to have a real good work on it.’ Managing Director Dave O`Neill told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“We`re a little bit disappointed with it. We`ve spent a lot of money and we expected it to be a little bit better.

“There were an accumulation of things that probably put us back by a fortnight. Weather was one thing.

“When we did get it seeded it was the driest spell it could possibly have been and once the grass started growing it`s just been flooded. For the last five or six weeks we`ve had nothing but rain.

“We did try to postpone the game last Friday but the Football League said it was our home fixture and it would give us an advantage later on if we had three home games in a row.

“But the contractors are confident they can pull it around.’