When I worked a bar back in the day one of the nicest guys I ever met was Bill Mason, who was head groundsman at the Metropolitan Police 3 Area sports & social club at Chigwell in Essex. All god knows how many acres of it, complete with massive stables.
Bill and his small team had to look after half a dozen football pitches, a couple of designated rugby pitches and also prepare cricket strips in the summer. It was a beautiful building and the grounds were equally impressive. In those days, weaves of grass and Astro didn’t exist so I’d suggest Bill’s job was equally as skilled as that of the current generation.
Having seen St Andrew’s on Wednesday I would love to go back in time and ask Bill his opinion of the swamp [sorry, surface]. I know it’s utilised twice a week every week but even so it was dreadful. It looked like a back garden thrown down by a UK property developer named after an exotic edible fruit. I don’t do libel but in this case I would have loved to have made an exception by being more specific.
But on said swamp [where the risk of injury must have been a concern] we did the perfect job against a Coventry City side who suffered a first-half double whammy from our very own Chuckle brothers in rancid shirts. Emi and Teemu of course indulged in *to me, to you* and both resulting goals were a joy to observe.
We could have had a couple more if Coventry keeper Ben Wilson hadn’t been equal to a superb Grant Hanley header or if Pukki’s cross to the onrushing Todd Cantwell hadn’t somehow ended up six inches behind him.
In the second half operation Game Management was deployed – and to great success. The closest the Sky Blues came was a well-struck shot from distance courtesy of Gus Hamer that had Tim Krul at full stretch. They offered comparatively little although there is no doubting their workrate or commitment. Will Mark Robins keep them up? Yes I think so, just.
It’s a duck shoot I realise, but the Radio Coventry commentator was like a schoolkid who had done no revision for his GCSEs. We had Martin Krul, Timmy Pukki and *the guy on the left* who presumably couldn’t pronounce Giannoulis. Luckily he was balanced by an old adversary of ours, *Big Oggy*. Steve Ogrizovic alone should have carried that broadcast. I think most of us realise how lucky we are to have Chris Goreham at the helm.
Player-wise [apart from the obvious Pukki and Buendia] I would single out Olly Skipp yet again, an improving Dimitris and particularly Todd Cantwell, who I thought was largely magnificent on the Evostik surface.
Brentford stuffing up again is no concern to them according to Nick Bruzon of *Last Word* fame. Other views are available on another Brentford fansite, Beesotted, of course.
Swansea’s late winner against Forest? We might not like it but we couldn’t influence it so, so what!
As for our quick return to St Andrew’s on Tuesday, if I had a TARDIS and there were no Covid restrictions I would love to go to the match with Bill the groundsman so I could watch the game and he could give me his thoughts about the pitch.
Please Bluenose executives, keep Aitor Karanka in the job until you’ve played us.
Took a look at the pitch, did a double check in case we were at Derby’s old ground the Baseball. yet we played some once passing stuff.
I never had the fear that Coventry would hit back, yea know they would have their moments on top, we had the measure of them, meaning we could drop down a gear, but was still there if needed. Comfortable enough to get some minutes into legs coming back, game management is better than it has been, perhaps something learned from the Prem. ?
A good night all round.
Hi Lad
Yes that pitch was reminiscent of the Baseball Ground – I hadn’t thought of that!
We ploughed through it pretty well though but I was quite concerned about tired legs and very concerned about the possibility of acquiring injuries.
Seems like we came through though – shame we have to go back on Tuesday.
Thanks as ever.
As you saw I commented about the pitch on Gary’s article, but prompted by your pre-astro turf days I’ll add a personal memory.
I played on a pitch once not unlike the one in the picture at the top; it was in the early 70s at one of the London Uni college pitches (somewhere in north London, can’t remember exactly whose it was). It was awful. Especially as we were playing hockey….
Hi Keith
I’ve never played hockey in my life, but MFW’s Martin MacBlain is a coach and might well be able to make some observations if he’s reading this – although being a teacher he might just be a tad busy at the moment.
The worst experience I can recall was also in North London – at Hackney Marshes around 1980. I slid somebody out on the line but couldn’t get up afterwards. The old lime-based pitch markings had frozen and I cut the underside of my left thigh and lost more blood than Tony Hancock ever did. I ended up with a dirty towel around it and an unwanted visit to Whipps Cross hospital.
The A&E nurses told me I was lucky as it missed a main vein and basically I had to get a cab back to my car and engage the clutch very, very gently all the way home.
Needless to say the tracky bottoms were binned that very day and I’ve never been overkeen on vampire movies ever since.
Cheers
Good afternoon Martin.
My goodness – I hadn’t realised that the pitch was THAT bad and when you see how well our players coped with it most of the time was superb. The pitch when we played Colchester in 2010 was in better condition, apart from one area which was completely waterlogged. Mind you, if the referee had called that game off, I think he would have been lynched.
Well, that was certainly job done last night on an absolutely diabolical pitch – and we’re there again next Tue.
OK, we had a little wobble when we dropped 7 points over 3 games, but now it seems Brentford are having their turn.
Some of the football we played last night was sensational and it truly was a joy to watch and totally cut Coventry to pieces. TC was getting rave reviews from the local commentary team and he certainly delivered.
I guess the only ‘blot on the landscape’ was the Swans getting a winner in the 87th minute.
Bring on Rotherham!!
Don’t be fooled, Ed. The image is of a generic ‘muddy pitch’, and not the St Andrew’s version of last night. In fairness, it was nothing like as bad as that, albeit still not exactly a bowling green!
Looked like Sloughbottom Park with a generic PL ball on it to me.
Fantastic pic 🙂
Hi Ed
Gary writes the headlines and chooses the pics. None of us would have it any other way.
I should get a pay rise after that remark 🙂
Without wishing to sound like *Ron Manager* or *Mike Bassett* I’m as worried about Watford as much as I am concerned about Brentford and Swansea.
When I saw that pitch and the slashing rain it took me back to my youth playing on council grounds. It was stand-out awful.
Cheers
*Noted Martin
I do so hope that the headline was yours Martin!!
Game Management is one thing that has improved immensly this season; and along with our lump of Scottish granite, I do think we have Ben Gibson to also thank.
On a real quagmire, some of our football in the first half was a joy to watch.
7 or 8 out of 10 for everyone….although last night, Vrancic must really have thought he WAS running through treacle.
Given our current form it’s not really fair to single anyone out, but it will be a travesty if so few of the Canary Nation get to see Olly Skipp play “live”.
On to another tough test on Saturday.
O T B C
Hi John
No mate, not me – Gary does all the headers as he’s the editor and I’m not!
Mine would probably have been something akin to *It’s muddy hell for Coventry as City tiptoe through the treacle* but then again I did used to work on The Sun so what can you expect?
If there wasn’t a pun [however weak] in a sub’s headline the chief sub would sling it back at you to try again if he couldn’t think of anything better himself.
A manager was never merely worried about an injury concern, he was always *sweating* over it. If a keeper was dropped it was *gloves off* and if anybody was sent off he *sees red*. I’m sure Mick D could come up with thousands more clichés. I can’t remember ’em all.
I’d love to see Olly Skipp play *in the flesh* too, but I doubt either of us ever will.
Cheers
Hi Martin
I played on a few ploughed fields similar to this pitch when in the RAF we never had proper green keepers.
At least we kept our nose in front of the chasing pack and Saturday it if Rotherham so another Millwall type of game so will go for a narrow 2-0/1 but it would’ve nice to keep another clean sheet and grab a few more goals in the next couple of games.
Ex city striker Ashley said Pukki is to nice laying on a goal for Buendia when he would have taken the shot himself.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 🙏
Morning Alex
Rotherham are nailed on to play the Millwall way – even more so if that’s possible!
I take your point about Pukki and our Emi’s pretty unselfish too.
Cheers
Quality team performance last night. Everyone played their part really well. If they can keep this level of performance up then I think they will get the 90 points or so probably needed for promotion. 16 games left for around 30 points or put another way 9 wins, 3 draws.
It is a shame that most of us will not see Norwich live this season.
The recruitment last summer and in January has been really good. If we do get promoted then we will need to strengthen the squad a lot to stand any chance, especially if we lose any of Emi, Max or Todd.
Bring on Rotherham and the rest of the season.
Morning Colin
To show that sort of quality on a quagmire of a pitch was really quite something.
I’ve seen a *highlights clip* of Todd Cantwell somewhere and he was really superb, especially given the circumstances.
Although I’m not normally one for getting carried away I think you’re quite right about strengthening if we go up. We can’t do what we did [didn’t] do last time.
Cheers
Mark Robbins glowing after match remarks said it all really!
Forecasting a balmy 15 degrees at The Carra tomorrow afternoon. The lot from South Yorks might think they’re on their holidays, so if we are the best team in the Championship, as ‘Our Mark’ says, then should be fun.
Love your developer analogy, I’ve copied it to my good mate Percy!
Hi Colin
My mate is going through a prolonged legal battle with Perce Simmons and although I’m no lawyer I really feel sorry for him and his family. They’ve paid their money for a tumbledown and are stalled at every turn, with Percy doubtless hoping my friend runs out of money to pursue them further.
I don’t think Paul Warne allows his teams to have a holiday in February 🙂
Cheers