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Renovation work begins on Blackpool's Bloomfield Road pitch
Head groundsman Harry Bradley posted a video on Twitter of a tractor digging up the pitch.
The early work will see the top surface removed which takes away the vegetation and organic matter.
The surface has been in a poor condition for much of the season, with manager Terry McPhillips previously admitting the Seasiders have had to change their style of play because of it.
"It’s not really football — it’s fightball the way it bounces about," he said after the 1-0 home defeat to Peterborough United.
"I’m not sure about calling it rub of the green — it’s rub of the brown the way the pitch is! "I think we’ve proven now that if we’re on a better pitch we do better."
The club were unable to dig up the pitch after the season had ended due to last weekend's Rugby League Summer Bash, which was held at Bloomfield Road over Saturday and Sunday.
[Post edited 22 May 2019 11:12]
Learning to read clusters is not something your eyes do naturally. It takes constant practice.
Must be a good chance we'll finally find the Ormerod money.
‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’
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Pitch Renovation on 13:13 - May 22 with 1326 views
Rumour has it the money has been found under the penalty spot at the South Stand hidden in this.....
‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’
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Pitch Renovation on 20:49 - May 22 with 1292 views
It seems as though the stories of builder's rubble under the south west corner of the playing surface came from Fantasy Island -
Additional Pitch Work In South West Corner
Club Looks To Rectify Issue
A problematic corner of the Bloomfield Road pitch has had some additional work done in the last 24 hours.
Extra depth has been removed from the playing surface in the South West corner after continual issues throughout the campaign.
The area was completely saturated and holding too much water due to some previous re-turfing that had been done.
However, all the organic matter and slushy soil that was present has now been stripped and dug out to allow for the problem to be rectified moving forward.
Learning to read clusters is not something your eyes do naturally. It takes constant practice.
Blackpool boss Terry McPhillips believes better pitch will bring better results at Bloomfield Road
Blackpool manager Terry McPhillips hopes the club’s new pitch will help to improve the Seasiders’ home form next season.
The early work will see the top surface removed to take away vegetation and organic matter.
The surface was in a poor condition for much of last season, with McPhillips admitting the Seasiders had to change their style of play because of it.
It had an effect on their home form too — the Seasiders won only eight of their 23 League One games at Bloomfield Road.
Results there were particularly poor in the final few months of the campaign as Pool picked up just three wins in 2019 on home turf.
“It’s really good to see work is now under way,” McPhillips said.
“I had seen some photos of what is being done, but coming into work to see it for myself was good.
“This is progress because this hasn’t happened for a number of years here.
“We’ve normally had to wait for the summer concert to get work done on the pitch and then you can’t take the top off.
“So this is good progress being made here, which is exciting.
“We’re going to have a nice pitch to start with, which hopefully will last a lot longer than it normally does — this season it was around November time when it began to turn.
“I think that with the team we have it helps having a nice pitch.
“The stats for the last two years say we haven’t done as well at home as we have done at the start of the season, so that’s a fact.
“We think there’s a good reason for that — it’s the pitch being in a terrible state.
“It’s really pleasing that we’ll have a good pitch to start with, and hopefully it will last long into the season — February or March time at least but hopefully April and May.”
The problematic south-west corner of the pitch also had additional work done to it last week.
A club statement read: “Extra depth has been removed after continual issues throughout the campaign.
“The area was completely saturated and holding too much water due to some previous returfing that had been done.
“However, all the organic matter and slushy soil that was present has now been stripped and dug out to allow for the problem to be rectified moving forward.”
The new pitch will be ready for Blackpool’s only home pre-season friendly against Championship side Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, July 27.
Learning to read clusters is not something your eyes do naturally. It takes constant practice.
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