Pitch perfect

The green, green grass of home at Latics

ATHLETIC’S ground staff have been given a new set of instructions for the coming season — get on with doing things your way.

New manager Darren Kelly has gone for a hands-off approach when it comes to setting down the standards he expects from a pitch which proved to be controversial last time out.

While head groundsman Lee Williams was recognised by the Football League as producing one of the three best playing surfaces in Sky Bet League One last season, Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill was highly critical of a bumpy surface after his title-winners played out a 1-1 draw in early April.

Williams believes that criticism was unfair, citing the particular challenges the topography of SportsDirect.com Park inspires.

“Talking to Darren Kelly, he understands that the job is not as easy as some people think it is,” Williams said.

“He has told me that he wants a surface that he can play good, attacking football on and has just left it to us saying, ‘get on with it’.

“Obviously it will deteriorate come January, February and March of next year.

“We don’t have access to lighting rigs to help promote growth, or undersoil heating here.

“And temperatures up here can consistently be two or three degrees lower than only a few miles down the road.

“But we fight tooth and nail to get every game on and only had one postponed last season.”

Athletic may not have a spare £1million to invest in a new hybrid surface, but Williams stressed he is happy with the assistance he does get from the board and hopes that some new ideas he has put in place will help matters.

In the current set of renovations, less sand has been applied to a turf which is already looking lush and green at this early stage.

It is a world away from the tricky conditions which plagued the game against the eventual champions, after which Cotterill stated: “When anyone tried to pass the ball, it went astray nine out of 10 times.”

Williams added: “I have never heard a manager say before that it is the pitch’s fault that a ball went out of play.

“I strive to make the surface the best it can possibly be, but we simply don’t have a Premier League budget here.

“There are a lot of factors at play and unless you are in the game, you might think we are just a set of grass-cutters. That isn’t the case. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many millions spent on research into fertilisers and chemical compounds.”

Williams was pipped by the highly resourced Bristol City groundsman Craig Richardson to the top divisional prize last season, along with Fleetwood’s Dale Frith.

That will naturally put a spring in anyone’s step professionally and he also points to the new North Stand as having a material effect on the day-to-day work of his staff.

“Having the stand in the background helps you feel you are professional in what you are doing,” added Williams, who has also been working on renovating the club’s training ground.