THE PITCH

[rg6royal]

Good job we don't play there until Boxing day which gives the pith 12 days to recover.

[Gordons Cumming]

You wait and see the pitch for the next home match, or even London Irish, it'll be brilliant.

Our groundsman is a miracle worker.

[mg1976royal]

Good job we don't play there until Boxing day which gives the pith 12 days to recover.

London Irish are playing at home on 20th so I would not expect much improvement by boxing day.

[JoebyRFC]

didn't are groundsman get snapped up by juventus a while back when the pitch was great

i think it was 4 or 5 years back now

[Northern Git]

they said on the championship that the pitch has been used 4 times in 8 days so it is no surprised it was looking pretty bad

are we still using those massive light structures to make the grass grow longer?

They were outside the ground when I went up to get my Sarfhamton tickets on Thursday, did not see any on the grass.

Thought our pitch looked crap compared to all the other grounds shown on this mornings Championship.

Bit of rain before the LI Game on the 20th should just finish it off.

[Ian Royal]

didn't are groundsman get snapped up by juventus a while back when the pitch was great

i think it was 4 or 5 years back now

I can't imagine Neate at Juve.

Please don't tell me he's left!

[SLAMMED]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place or already been mentioned but just to comment how much worse the pitch is this season than it has been compared to the last two seasons. Worse pitch in the championship by a mile and after all the money we spent on it last year.Hope its not going to affect our home form for the remaining games.
Thoughts anyone?

4 Games in 8 days did it... our game, Rugby, a youth cup game and an other all took their toll'

Is our pitch 100% natural, as the % grass with plastic fibre pitch's tend to last longer. I know the lower leagues use these more.

I swear our pitch has those plastic fibres in it? I blade in ten or something or have we ditched it?

i thought it was more like 1 in 5 were plastic. But we deffinatly do have some plastic.

I think it is similar to Reading fans last year. 1 plastic in every 5.

[Rex]

The IR lamps are only used to help the grass recover due to the design of the stadium bowl. The excessive rain will naturally rip the surface more and make it look tired. Aside from the obvious areas of wear there are some strange patches which are appearing to the right of the goalmouth in the north stand area. Possibly caused by egg chasing rucks.

[Royalshow]

We needs these bad boys back! Shame though Madejski is as tight as a ducks butt so luxuries like having a decent pitch go out of the window in the Championship.

[SLAMMED]

Madejski is a tight as a ducks

In english please?

[Y25]

No ressies at Mad til Jan

but egg chasers playing at home on Saturday

[West Stand Man]

I think that the point is that although the grass is getting thin the surface is not breaking up. The Desso system is supposed to keep the surface flat even when the grass is worn - and it appears to be doing that as the ball ran true on Saturday. The expensive work done last time round was to improve the drainage and that also seems to have worked ok as there was no real surface water (remember the Leicester game Boxing Day a few years back!)

[Dirk Gently]

I think a small percentage of the blades are plastic - I also think it has a plastic mesh into which the grass roots grow, which helps to hold them in place.

Yes the pitch looked awful, but I think if the money hadn't been spent on it a year or so ago then it would have looked a whole heap worse and might not even have been playable. Remember the Leicester game 4(?) years ago when there was a similar amount of water but not so many games played so intensively.

[Deathy]

didn't are groundsman get snapped up by juventus a while back when the pitch was great

i think it was 4 or 5 years back now

I can't imagine Neate at Juve.

Please don't tell me he's left!

Wasn't this around the year we were promoted from Division 2 (League 1)? And they were rumoured to want our groundsman (but was it Neate they wanted, or the younger lad?) but he never left.

[PieEater]

The rain was persistent, but not exactly heavy. When the Leceister game was postponed it absolutely threw it down for an hour before the kick off.

[JC]

Did anybody walk on their lawn on Saturday? The rain was persistent and fairly heavy. I thought the pitch stood up fairly well in the circumstances. It was fairly dry on Thursday (and very cold) when the rugger buggers played so I don't think they can be blamed. If the weather holds I bet it will be much better when we next play

[Dirk Gently]

The rain was persistent, but not exactly heavy. When the Leceister game was postponed it absolutely threw it down for an hour before the kick off.

Maybe the rain on Saturday wasn't as heavy as at the Leicester game, but it had been raining for a lot longer this time. It absolutely chucked it down all night and morning - I think teh amounts of rain would be about the same, but it was draining pretty well on Saturday.

[Royal-DLG]

Now we have a week Break the pitch should be ok for when we return for Boxing day Against Cardiff.

And our home game after that isnt until the 9th January (correct me if im wrong.) And there are 2/3 rugby games in between.

A combination of the weather and the pitch being over used in a short space of time made it as bad as it was yesterday.

Im sure the groundstaff will have it back to respectablity in no time.

[SLAMMED]

TBH, we shouldnt have rugby games at madejski. We are a top championship club and we shouldnt have to put up with a torn up pitch caused by the egg chasers. Our home games are vital and if our players struggle to play it on the deck then we have a disadvantage at home. I say move all youth games to other pitches and kick London Irish out of OUR stadium.

[RG30]

We also have an additional 3 league games to cater for the pitch, plus every reserve game bar the Gillingham match has been played at the Madejski Stadium this season. In the previous 2 seasons, the majority were played at Aldershot's Recreation Ground. Eventually these matches will take their toll. Maybe it was a bit of freakish weather, I didn't quite appreciate till we were in our taxi on the way up to the ground just how heavily it had been raining up towards kick off in the Sotuh Reading area (it wasn't that bad in town). The conditions were exactly the same for both sides, it's just a case of who could adapt to it best.

As for blaming London Irish, they have a long lease for the stadium so you may as well accept it. Granted if we get promoted straight away, we'll invest heavily in the pitch and hopefully for an improved surface.