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Plastic Pitches


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The Isle of Man recently replaced the grass pitch with a 3G artificial pitch at the stadium in Douglas and installed floodlights, the pitch is now in use 7 days a week and is so popular, it is virtually impossible to get a slot on it. Great money spinner, and from personal experience I can tell you it is just like playing on a grass pitch but with little or no maintenance costs incolved.

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In Andy Ritchie’s latest Football League Blog, he says:

 

Of course, there are financial benefits for a club because they are not at the mercy of the weather and games being called off but I also genuinely believe Oldham's artificial pitch made us better players. The surface made good ball control absolutely vital and as a result I think we all worked harder on that aspect of our game.

 

Those who are against artificial pitches argue they lead to more injuries but I'm not sure that's been conclusively proven. I had a disc taken out of my back at the age of 30 and while the surgeon said playing on an artificial pitch may not have helped my condition, he also couldn't say for certain that it was the cause either.

 

Then there is the argument artificial pitches give the home side a disproportionate advantage but again, I'm not so sure. For me, the Boundary Park pitch wasn't unfair on visiting teams. True, we were more accustomed to it but I always felt the problem was the negative mindset opposition sides came with before they had even kicked a ball. They expected the pitch to have demons in it and they were on the back foot mentally before the game had even started.

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Now is the time to reintroduce them

 

Ive played on a couple at platt lane and one at Carrington used for United's youth they will help a club like us massively. The ball runs better and it will encourage a better standard of football as the ball will bobble less and it cut down on an overhead due to them being less expensive to maintain and they can be hired out too.

Edited by GlossopLatic
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Bringing this back to the top as the season goes on and pitches at this level deteriorate perhaps this can be one of the reasons for our poor second half of the season form for the last few years as the ball doesnt run as smoothly its starting to look like its cutting up at present it sertainly cut up in the 2nd half of 06-07? Not saying its the only reason but it maybe a contributing factor

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