Astro v Grass

The BBC have opened up debate on it getting managers and players views: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35551542

Not really much of a balanced survey they've done but I thought it interesting as we're meant to be changing to an artificial pitch for next season.

Just seems the predictable starting arguments against it, injuries, ball is different on it, can't do slide tackles unless it is wet or you get burns.

To address those one by one;

Isn't any evidence in that article of injuries on plastic compared to how many players are injured on grasss. Or players opinions who have played on it regular, why no Accies, Kilmarnock, Alloa, Falkirk, QoS, etc etc players being asked, there are 12 clubs in the SPFL playing on plastic, if any players pick up injuries due to playing on it surely they'd have more injuries than any other team.

Ball is different on it, yep, but then again the ball is different on grass pitches depending on the quality you're playing on, ours for instance is likely to cause an injury due to players slipping on it and twisting themselves, and if the ball hits a divot it'll bounce randomly, or skite on wet grass, for me that argument doesn't stand up, you just adapt to whatever pitch you're on.

The old burn story, from what I've read the old pitches were brutal but the newer ones are meant to be pretty good and I've seen players do slide tackles on them without looking like they've burned themselves, no sign of them attending a burn afterwards.

Hughes idea of a 50K bond, yeah lets impose more financial hardship on clubs, that just what football needs. Would make more sense to reward clubs that have grass than punish them for not keeping the grass in good nick. Why not give them 50K at the end of the season if they've kept their pitches to a certain standard all season, that would give clubs an incentive and compensate them for the cost of doing so.


On the whole the bbc article is outdated in opinion, not based on any real evidence and bog standard reaction from old school opinion. We need this properly researched.

Good post

Interesting to see those complaining of injuries like hairline fractures - wouldn't they suffer the same or worse playing on a frozen real grass pitch?

Both my sons play on the latest 4G pitch and like it - I do remember watching a game at QPR in the late 70's and that stuff really was brutal - a number of the players use to play in trackie bottoms to cut down the number of friction injuries but I understand that's not the case now particularly with the more modern pitches and provided they're properly maintained.

Not sure of the point they were trying to make about the flare being thrown on to the pitch except to highlight a criminal activity. Repairing an artificial pitch can happen really quickly whereas reseeding takes months.

For the financial reasons alone I suppose I'm in favour of it and haven't noticed much of a difference in the playing process however we are at least fortunate in the fact that we probably have one of the better playing surfaces in the league so can understand the argument often put forward by the traditionalists.

It would seem the older players don't like it more than any, and citing injuries seems strange when they also say all the youth players train and play on 4G.

If players really were more likely to be injured on artificial surfaces then surely you wouldn't want the youth players on it, they are the future and in their early development, why would you be allowing them to play on that surface at an early age when it is so bad for you. Nah that doesn't make sense, I still believe it is just down to old school thinking from ill informed older players and managers.

You'd also think guys like Hughes would be all for it with his keeping it on the deck passing philosophy, just look at the state of the grass pitches at this time of the year, hardly conducive to passing football.

There are enough clubs using it to do proper tests to compare both playing surfaces, about time the SPFL did some research on it. Prob don't want to as the results would be in 4G's favour and more clubs would switch to it.