We need 3G pitches to beat the weather, says struggling Ashford chairman

Sunday 10th January 2010

ASHFORD TOWN chairman Don Crosbie says football clubs should be allowed to install 3G playing surfaces to beat the weather and be in a position to generate income, writes Stephen McCartney.

The playing surface at Homelands Stadium has taken a battering this season, with numerous games postponed due to waterlogged or frozen pitches.

Ashford Town have played only seven league and cup games this season and tenants Maidstone United have managed to play eleven competitive games.

Crowds have also suffered with Ashford averaging gates of 175 (down 45% on last season) and the Stones average 296 (down 24% on last season when they were groundsharing Sittingbourne‘s Bourne Park).

Mr Crosbie, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk today, believes the Football Association should assist clubs in improving their pitches.

“I think we’re going to move more and more into all weather pitches, all weather surfaces to accommodate the weather,” he said.

“With the quality of the all-weather pitches it won’t be long certain non-league clubs that struggle with full-time ground staff etc will maybe move into 3G.

“The upgraded 3G is a lot easier to maintain than a grass pitch. It’s a mixture of grass and man made fibres and I think if you look at the new design of the 3G then possibly that will be the way to go and in a couple off years time that will be the way forward, especially for our football club because the weather won’t be so damaging.”

When asked how much laying a 3G pitch at Homelands would cost, Mr Crosbie replied, “About five to six hundred thousand points in total, which sounds a lot of money. It is a lot of money but there are grants available from the FA, the Football Foundation etc.”

Mr Crosbie spoke about the problems that he is currently facing.

He said: “We’ve had the wettest November on record and then we had the big freeze in December so we’ve probably had seven or eight weeks of really, really damp, extreme weather and now we’ve got this snow and God knows what’s going to happen when that’s going to thaw.

“But with Maidstone there as well that’s causing us major problems so it’s going to be a difficult year. It’s going to be a difficult end to the season with so many games having to be played because they’ve got to be played.

“We have got a lot of football to catch up on. Obviously with Maidstone playing there as well they’ve got a lot of games to catch up on as well because they’ve got midweek games so that’s Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday catered for. It’s happened in the past and it might be that we might have to increase the number of games played during the week and bring in a Thursday.

“It really depends on the next two weeks really with the weather because we know the number of games that we’ve got to play and we know the number of weeks that we’ve got to get them crammed into so it’s not going to take much of a statistician to work out when these games are going to be played.

“The thing is with this weather it can’t go on forever but the trouble is with these extreme conditions now we’re either getting it very wet or very cold and if it was just Ashford Town then it wouldn’t be such a major concern but obviously Maidstone groundsharing it’s going to be very difficult for us, very difficult indeed.

When the question about the number of games being played on the pitch and that Steve Lovell’s side have trained on the pitch this season, the chairman replied, “If the weather was like last year it wouldn’t have been a major problem. It’s not that the ground can’t take it, it’s the weather. I mean the problem is when we get extremely wet conditions it’s not the drainage, it’s the surface, it’s the top surface, the skin if you like, the top two inches.

“The pitch is draining very well. We’ve got an area in front of the stand that doesn’t get any sun that took a bit of a hammering.

“The other thing as well are that we’ve found referee’s are very, very prone now to calling off games anticipating weather rather than the conditions as they are. There’s been two or three games that could’ve been played that we’re cancelled on the basis that the weather was going to close in.

“In the old days we would’ve played the game and tried to get through it.

“The thing is Health & Safety is everything and when you look at the lad at Chatham (Mark Green) who got the triple fracture that game could’ve been off and some people might agree that the extreme conditions and the bad weather maybe stops players controlling the game and be a bit more safety conscious, I don’t know.”

Match day income has certainly taken a big hit and Mr Crosbie is having to put his hands in his own pockets to make ends meet.

And he urges supporters to flock through the turnstiles during a heavily congested last 15 weeks of the season.

“As I’m the only person that contributes to the football club, other than the gate receipts and sponsorship it is tough,” Mr Crosbie admitted.

“We’ve got our bills to play and lots of them and we haven’t had any real income through the gates as we’ve only played a few games.

“That said obviously we’ve got these games to play so the revenue will perhaps catch up by the end of the season.

“It’s tough for all clubs in non-league. I don’t think we can rely too much on gate receipts for paying all your bills because a couple hundred people really doesn’t pay your wage bill etc. But we’ll survive.”

Ashford Town are rooted to the foot of the Ryman League Division One South table, having collected two wins and five draws from 18 games (five of those have been played at home).

They are six points adrift of safety, but the chairman hopes the team can get through their congested run-in and maintain the club’s status at this level.

“We’ve got four games in hand. We’ve always said we’d strengthen the squad and protect our position (as a Ryman League club), which we will do.

“We’ve suffered tremendously with injuries this season starting from the first week, losing both mainstream goalkeeper’s was a tremendous blow for Steve Lovell and losing Joe Fuller and Paul Jones are all key players in our squad, which isn’t as big as last year.

“But we’re going to draft in a couple of players to strengthen the squad.

“There’s another twist in this as well. When you are playing two or three times a week a squad normally comes together and plays better because they’re playing regularly and I think that might actually help Ashford Town rather than hinder it.

“We will increase the size of the squad over the next few weeks to accommodate the extra games and hopefully sort out the league position.”

Mr Crosbie believes the country has gone soft when it comes to playing on snowbound pitches.

Even Premier League clubs have been forced to postpone matches in the past week, as although pitches have been playable due to undersoil heating, the Police have forced them to call games off due to the condition of roads and walkways in the vicinity of stadiums.

“I think the problem is not just the pitch,” added Mr Crosbie. “It’s the stands, the walkways, the paths, the car park, the roads to and from the club, it’s all these issues.

“In the old days people used to walk through the snow. You moved the snow away off the pitch so you could see the by-lines and the goalmouths and the referee’s just played through it.

“But you’re not allowed to these days. Health & Safety is the thing and what the referee’s are terrified off is if a player gets a broken leg and obviously can’t work and can’t earn any money suddenly the referee could be sued and the FA could be sued. It’s very complex these days. It’s not as simple as it was in the old days.”

Visit Ashford Town’s website: www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk