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Fir Park Pitch Criticised On Bbc Website


Kmcalpin
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  • 2 weeks later...

Going back years I've always found Thistle a rather irritating lot. In fact one of the earliest fanzine articles I wrote for Waiting for the Great Leap Forward was bemoaning the easy ride they got from the likes of Radio Clyde.

I've always had a fair amount of respect for their supporters as its clearly a good thing they've foregone supporting the Old Firm when they've got two large and generally successful clubs on their doorstep. But by fuck in making that choice it hasn't half given them a superiority complex.

In trying to be seen as the righteous and morally just club in the city, to emphasise the difference between them and Old Firm fans, I find they can come across as rather full of their own self importance. I think they have undoubtedly benefited in the media over the years from the fact they are a "safe" Glasgow option who have offered an easy and covenient out. If they didn't happen to be in Glasgow frankly nobody would give a toss about them in the media the same way nobody in the media really gives a fuck about Motherwell, St Mirren, Killie or any of the other provincial diddy teams in the west of Scotland.

That said when it comes to their pitch issues a little annoying as it is to see the inconsistency in how we were treated over postponements in comparison to theirs I gather there are some parallels of misfortune. Whereas we were apparently unlucky a few years ago in that the composition of the soil below pitch level was largely clay based which baked when the undersoil heating was used, so they've been unfortunate in that the location of their ground makes it extremely prone to waterlogging when there has been the volume rain we've experienced in recent months.

 

Three points against them next weekend would make up for any easy ride they've got about their pitch.



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Canals shouldn't be leaking water. Thistle would have a justified complaint if that was where the water was coming from and it would be a year round issue. I think it's just their drainage isn't up to the very wet winter we've had.

Absolutely. Canals do leak small amounts of water but they are lined to prevent this. If the underlying hydrology is in any way to blame it will be dependent on the level of natural water table and I very much doubt that it reaches ground level under Firhill.

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Although the canal is higher than the pitch, the ground slopes away on the other side so it's not as though the pitch at Firhill is in some sort of hollow. I think they have the same sort of drainage issues as we had and probably also have a clay sub-strata which has a very low infiltration rate which doesn't help. They will probably have to bite the bullet and re-lay their pitch in the summer after upgrading their drainage.

 

By all accounts St. Johnstone's pitch was very poor yesterday. Obviously they have a purpose built stadium so you would assume they drainage should be up to scratch - I think that one's more a case of the pitch getting ripped up by playing on it when very soft due to the amount of rain we've had. I'm starting to come round to the idea of artificial pitches although only if they are of a really high standard. Accie's pitch last season was terrible, this year's still doesn't convince although Kilmarnock's seemed ok.

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most of the parks in the scottish top flight are very very poor and i include our own. i sat in the main stand for the ict cup game and being higher up i could see the park is in a poorer condition than i thought as im usually lower down in the east.

patches everywhere.

however mcdermid park was like a ploughed field and the less said about the firhill park the better.

 

when you look at most of the parks in the top 3 flights in england, they are so much better than anything we can produce.

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I have watched many EPL and Championship games this season and there have been plenty of poor surfaces. There is no denying, however, that in general the weather is worse in the north than the south.

 

Looking at it on TV from above, Fir Park has been excellent this season considering the weather conditions it has had to endure. Having said that, given that the worst team in the EPL received more money in TV payments alone last season than we have turnover in 70 years, it's not surprising they can spend a little more on their turf.

 

Sod's law, you might say,

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when you look at most of the parks in the top 3 flights in england, they are so much better than anything we can produce.

I'm not surprised in the least given the money they bring in from TV. I think a few years ago Arsenal spent about £8m on a new drainage system. Don't forget too that the climate is a wee bit kinder south of the border.

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