Following Taggart's well chronicled (if totally wasted) outburst regarding the state of the pitch, what is the answer? OT has never had a decent surface for quite a while - indeed it was re-laid more often than Dwight Yorke - and I see reports on .com that the goal areas at SJP have also been relaid recently.

Now, I'm not sure if other teams have the same problem, but there are far better surfaces than those two in the EPL. Is it coincidence that the two largest club stadia in England are having problems with the grass? Is it simply a matter of a lack of light? Have we just got used to billiard table surfaces? Should we?

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Answers

I think on here said before that it was caused by the undersoil heating killing the roots, or something like that.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

RUGBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

LoL LR. That might be your excuse. Our's is that we use the wrong type of fertiliser. I always thought you need more than sh!te.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

The undersoil heating is said to burn the roots but the heating has been around for years so I'm going to blame the lack of light.

I'd be interested to see whether Arsenal's groundkeeping staff could do wonders with our pitch or Old Trafford's.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Did anyone see the picture of the proposed Everton ground?

The grass slides out on rollers onder the stand after each game and is cared for outside the stadium where it can get light , rain and wind. The latter aparentlly being the main problem in fully enclosed stadia.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

i seem to remember the problem we had a few years ago with this was that the groundsman left the undersoil heating on after a couple of days of frozen ground, frost and snow and the roots were killed. I suppose it's the same thing this time around.....

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

>>>>>>Did anyone see the picture of the proposed Everton ground? The grass slides out on rollers onder the stand after each game

It would be more use at Everton if it slid under the stand before the game! ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Also, since we closed in the corners, the pitch gets very little sunlight on it which isn't ideal. The same at Man Utd.

We need a good pitch though. When we came up from D1, we had one of the best pitches in the league (or maybe the season after?). This isn't so anymore.

However bad it is, it can't be as bad as the sh*te I played on on Sunday.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

There's always the old suggestion of stringing Shearer up over the centre circle and dropping his shorts allowing the sun to shine....

It would also solve the dilemma of how to fit him into the side whilst keeping Ameobi, Dyer, Speed, Solano, Acuna. At least for the home games. ;-))

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Oh dear! Oh dear! You will get into trouble Ciara.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001