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The return of artificial pitches


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It would makes economic sense for a poorly-supported Club like Latics.

 

Those knees in the picture remind me of Neville Southall warming-up for ages and playing without a tracksuit bottom, at BP in the FA Cup for Everton. His knees were ripped to shreds, preventing him from getting down low enough to stop Roger Palmer prodding the ball through his legs - not a foul as mentioned in the following feature.

 

Latics v Everton 1990

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Absolute no-brainer. If they are OK for Champions' League how can they not be ok for third and fourth division. The improvement between the QPR version and ours was enormous and since then the improvement in quality has been exponential. In anither generation we'll wonder why anyone ever played on grass

Edited by Dave_Og
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Those knees in the picture remind me of Neville Southall warming-up for ages and playing without a tracksuit bottom, at BP in the FA Cup for Everton. His knees were ripped to shreds, preventing him from getting down low enough to stop Roger Palmer prodding the ball through his legs - not a foul as mentioned in the following feature.

 

Latics v Everton 1990

Served the stubborn daft get right for playing in shorts.

 

Widnes Vikings are playing on a plastic pitch next season. I'll be interested to see how that works out - their chief exec was on the news a while ago saying that 'it just feels like normal grass underfoot', presumably forgetting that scoring a try usually involves sliding face-first along the pitch. If it's safe for rugby league, though, it's hard to see how they can justify banning it in football.

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I played on a plastic pitch for a few months a while back, I lost my balance tackling someone and had "THIS IS GOING TO REALLY HURT" going round my head, once I stopped moving I has very surprised to realise that I didn't have the carpet burns of old and was fine apart from being covered in little black bits of rubber stuff.

 

There is still less give in the modern artificial surfaces than grass but it is still more than possible to play a decent game on them.

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We most definitely should get one if allowed. Of course the initial outlay may sting but the additional revenue from hiring it out, the reduction in postponements and maintenance would be hugely beneficial to clubs such as ours.

 

In fact, we should make sure we're at the front of the queue to get one in.

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I can see the benfits outstripping the negatives.......i think the cost saving on the usual groundskeeping outlays, and of the higher chance of games not having to be postponed due to the weather conditions outweigh the lack of realistic feel on the surface.

As others have mentioned, they're no longer the skin-tearing, sandpaper surfaces they were in the 80's......and if FIFA allow them to be used in other leagues & more to the point Internationals and Champions League games, then there cant be too much of an argument against their use in the English 3rd tier surely??

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I played on the old pitch a few times.

Once & only once I made a full back look silly , he then wiped me out.

My kness then all bloody scabbed over.

They burned for about 3 days & then exploded in a mass of green gunge ....

I never ever allowed myself to be in a position where I couldn't control how I fell after that.

 

Still recall the first game on the plastic.

We were allowed 2 days grace , played on the Monday , against Barnsley won 2-0.

The pitch was orange because of all the sand that was on it that not bedded down.

 

No point having it back with the type of player we have had in the last decade.

You need players who can pass to feet accurately & trap a ball.

Obvious exceptions like Shez & Eyres who would have had no problem.

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