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That doesn't mean it will not freeze if it gets wet and frosty weather within a short period..and once frozen, like grass, it becomes unplayable.
"Moisture retention: Artificial pitches, like 4G pitches, retain moisture in the winter, which can freeze and make the surface hard and unsafe to play on. Insulating effect: The infill and carpet of an artificial pitch can insulate it, causing it to remain frozen even when natural grass around it has thawed. Snowfall: Snow can quickly settle on a frozen pitch."
I'm not sure its a subject that warrants criticism of the Co-Chairman just because he isnt a native Rochdalian..but it would be interesting to hear what the ground staff suggested might be needed. The current problems being worse than last season might suggest that perhaps the work done on the pitch pre-season has created a problem or aggravated an existing one. The difficulty is that noone really knows that there is a problem until the weather creates one and lets be honest, the last few weeks / months of weather have been fairly poor even by Rochdale standards. So, is it the pitch, is it the drains, is it just the weather? Or a combination of all of them? No one seems to know but its going to be difficult and expensive to fix if the work this week doesnt do the job...
The truth is that the fans are not really paying for football, its being paid for by TV companies, sponsors , and Rich men and women, certainly at the highest level, but even at this level, the TV money that siphons down via the Premiership , EFL and even the Natiina League allows many footballers to be paid eye watering wages compared to the average wage in the towns they purport to represent. 45 years ago it was unthinkable that division 4 clubs would be collecting millions or pounds from the Football League each season, the pity is that the money has not been spent on the matchday experience, very few new grounds have been re-built, very few clubs have built resilient, non football, income streams despite their captive audiences. Perhaps with our new owners we can buck the trend and become the club others look to when discussing how to thrive in the lower reaches of the game, we can only hope...but there will need to be some new attitudes required from employees and fans alike, less blame and more can-do is required. "Build it and people will come"....
We have indeed spent plenty on the pitch, whether this can be regarded as an investment is, at this moment, doubtful. Maintaining the surface is one thing, building a drainage system that prevents the pitch from becoming waterlogged is a different issue and without suitable drains, the surface, on very wet days becomes irrelevant. If memory serves, there was a period when we were amazed that the pitch stood up to heavy rainfall easily. Didnt one of the several pitch renovations build some new drains alongside the main stand and out behind the Sandy Lane goal to the main drains on Sandy Lane? Is it blocked? Has it been disrupted by recent pitch work? Getting a drains company in would seem to be an obvious first step, maybe its been done but given the quantity of water involved, the drains have to be in tip top condition, until we know they are, any further work is potentially pointless.
I posted this to try and give some perspective to the size of the problem,. I have no doubt it is possible to overcome our current pitch problems but it has to be recognised that as it stands we are almost back to square one in terms of its suitability for professional football to where we were at the turn of the millenium before any real pitch resurfacing had been considered.
Like so much around the COA , the lack of investment is manifesting itself in the pitch, the dire decor in the main stand, and the general state of dilapidation around the place that repainting cannot disguise..
The scale of what is needed is huge, presumably this is why there are talks of a major renovation to the main stand but its also the case that many aspects of the ground are simply wearing out and finances do not allow the renovation required.
A millimetre of rain falling on a square metre of pitch = 1 litre of water At 105 m x 68m, the pitch = 7140 sq metres x 75mm of rain = 535,550 litres of water that fell on the pitch yesterday and today (or for us oldies 117,805 gallons).
The average monthly rainfall in Rochdale for January is 110 mm...over 75 mm of rain fell on the pitch in the last 24 hours.
The AGM on Monday was a total non-event which, taking into consideration the events of the last few AGMs, was probably a good thing. Items were voted on by poll, making whatever the meeting concluded to be entirely subject to the whims of the major shareholders. A couple of technical questions about the accounts were answered to the apparent satisfaction of the questioners after which the meeting was closed without any further discussion. Not even a coffee and biscuits! The sun broke through as a groundsman walked a machine up and down the pitch, a few shareholders stayed for a few minutes engaged in conversations about the probability of a game on Wednesday and suddenly we were all on our way home ....
I did wonder if the lack of discussion beyond the agenda was because NDAs or similar are in place concerning Main Stand refurbishments and or training facilities / hub but they clearly didnt want to indulge in spurious conversation so we are none the wiser.... Disappointed there was no coffee or biscuits but still ...maybe next year!
Barlow is the epitome of a " broken toy" , following his departure from MUFC after 14 years he has bounced around a few clubs, latterly on 1 season contracts. He perhaps needs a period of consolidation to re-build some confidence and get his career onto an upwards trajectory. He is 25 in January so its time for him to show what he can do. Yesterday could be a turning point for him. Lets hope he is enjoying his football at Rochdale and fulfills some of his early promise...
There is a big dilemma at the centre of the Trust in that the elected Chairman is not the person representing the Trust on the club's BoD, and even then the position is one of an invitee rather than a fully paid-up board member. Questions will inevitably be asked about the reports received from the Trust's representative but is seems he is not responsible for directly answering and defers to other members of the Trust to do so, and like Chinese whispers, each re-telling could alter the story somewhat, and may then become influenced by opinions rather than actualities.
Whilst this is a weakness the Trust may or may not have to live with , it undoubtedly strains relationships.
Fans also place too big a burden on the Trust in that they want to know the inner machinations of the BoD and expect to be kept informed at a level of detail to which they are not entitled to know even if they are shareholders, particularly in respect of forward looking or sensitive matters perhaps under negotiation with other parties.
For its part, the BoD should accept that its affairs are of great interest to the fan-base and try to be more forthcoming in those matters that can be widely disclosed bearing in mind, that much will depend on the frequency of their meetings.
I can't imagine that there are many limited companies that have invited board members selected by a trust set up by their customers. Generally you would assume that they try to keep their customers onside by delivering a top quality buying experience and a high quality product which then begs the question "does the presence of the trust provide the BoD with an excuse to be less communicative with its customers than might otherwise be the case"?
Clearly, events over the last 4 or 5 years have been a breeding ground for mis-trust and anger and memories are long, but the club is now effectively owned by a single entity which we assume is benevolent and as such, my belief is that we have to place our faith in what they are attempting to do until such time as that faith is proven to be mis-placed. We shall see if the proof of the pudding is in the eating, personally I am fed up with thin gruel.
The water has to go somewhere, if the surrounding drains will not take it then the covers will make little difference Ultimately we may have to take a couple of yards off the pitch on all 4 sides to get drains in with the capacity to take the water away. Its kind of the equivalent of building the pitch up a couple of feet to get more drainage, as at Gigg Lane if memory serves me correctly and probably at many other clubs...
The problem then might be how to get rid of the water from off the covers.. I have always suspected that the water simply does not get to the drains and that the pitch surround needs digging up and big French drains put in on all 4 sides sloping towards Sandy Lane and out to the main drains.
The pitch nightmare continues.. other than a couple of seasons probably over a decade ago when the pitch seemed to drain quite well, this has been a constant problem that annual pitch renovations have not solved and probably made worse despite the outlay of £100,000s. Its depressing and must have cost the club a fortune , not just in wasted matchday expenses but also in lost support and gate receipts due to shifting Saturday games to Tuesdays with all the knock-on effects of packing games into fewer remaining weeks. We know the weather here is wetter than at any other football club in the UK, it should be obvious that some sort of wet-weather protection is needed and that the drains need rodding regularly.. unfortunately no-one seems to want to grasp the nettle.. err rods...
James, I am now in my 7th decade of watching RAFC, 3 promotions, 4 relegations, and the only silverware I recall us ever winning was the Lancashire senior cup -- Twice! Once against Oldham and once against Bury with about 500 people in the ground! How long do I have to wait before I see an attack minded team with a proper Centre Forward who can both shoot and head a ball and generally terrify defences? Football is supposed to be a game of scoring goals, not scratching about playing in safe areas and hoping to win 1-0 thanks to a ricochet off someone's backside....This is supposed to be entertainment for Gods sake, not some sort of chess match played on grass... Lets just focus on scoring goals, as many as possible and if we lose 5-4 well done the other team, next time we will score 6! 20 games gone and 30% have been 1-0 wins or defeats. Of 7 defeats 5 have been by a single goal and the other two were by 2 or more. Oldham have scored Just 8 more goals and are 7 points above us, if we had scored 8 more goals in the games we have drawn or lost by a single goal we would be comfortably in the Play off positions with 11 more points...
I have 2 questions for JMc... 1) What is your best 11? 2) Do you believe its possible to score more goals or do you prefer to stop the opposition from scoring?
Don't worry, I am an owl..but, is it wrong? Either its true and results are getting worse or its not true and we are still in a playoff position and we are now ..9th... goals "for" are falling goals "against" are rising there is really only one conclusion the current selections or tactics are not working as well as they were earlier in the season, despite bringing in more players.. Things need to change quickly or we will be mid-table and stuck there. Maybe things will improve as the weather hopefully improves in spring and surfaces get faster, but we dont play with real pace anyway so who knows? Oldham have scored 8 more goals than we have and are 7 points above us...small margins over 20 games, but it proves that you have to score goals in this division you cannot defend your way out of it.
We do not score enough goals and we are getting worse defensively simple as.. Results with Ferguson at CH were better than with Hogan, goals are becoming fewer, its the perfect storm, conceding more scoring fewer and now we are 9th, albeit with games in hand All Last 8 Diff. Points per Game 1.65 1.25 -24.2% Average goals scored 1.40 1.00 -28.6% Average goals conceded 0.95 1.25 +31.6% We are conceding more, scoring less as time goes on.. We are now at the point where we need to score 2 goals or more to win a game Last 4 form, we are 13th Last 6 form, we are 11th Last 8 form, we are 16th Last 10 form we are 10th Last 12 form we are 13th
Last 4 home games 7th Last 8 home games 8th Last 4 Away games 15th Last 8 away games 10th
Our relative form over the last 8 games Vs all games to date is the 5th worst in the division ,only ahead of Woking Maidenhead Aldershot and Eastleigh
"It was that exciting I actually turned it off after half time and instead chose to write a pile of Christmas cards, something I actually despise doing"
I wish I had thought of that....
Sorry to say, this is a mid-table side with a mid-table manager .. why wait until the last 10-15 minutes to change anything and then to fall for the old sucker punch?... Poor. A point would have been OK with home games to come but going all that way and losing is just sloppy playing and management. And I am not sure the home advantage will prove to be what it could/ought to be be if we cant score more goals bearing in mind the goals against has gone from 0.95 to 1.25 over the last 8 games
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