I thought it looked quite "bobbly" on Saturday too, Probably because of the cold temperatures hitting it and it being midday so the frost might not have thawed.

If that was a 3 o Clock KO I reckon the pitch would have been fine, But its far from an excuse for Stoke as they hardly strung two passes together along our "bumpy" pitch!!

It has been 'bobbly' as hell for the past month to be fair.

I agree it's not in as good knick as it's been in previous seasons, but it's still a very good surface. The temperatures made it bobbly, it was a bit harder than usual on Saturday.

To be fair I think what Matty said was purely for the ears of West Ham United.

Steve Tilson said it was a "7 or 8 hour journey" did they hitch hike up the other week?

I do feel a bit sorry for Stoke. It must have been difficult for Delap to launch his throw-ins into our box over that bumpy pitch.

bumpy or not,did'nt both teams have to play on it

Since when do Stoke spend anytime playing with the ball on the pitch?

To my knowledge we didn't do the relay/reseed thingy (I have no idea about grass stuff) this year due to the tournament.

However....it's better than Stoke's.

There was nothing wrong with the pitch, half the games got called off. Ours didn't because we have a good groundsman and a decent pitch.

Let's hope it is bobbly for West Ham's flowing football!

nah the groundsman just got out his sun lamp

It's been very wet hereabouts so presume that it's been simlar in the NE. Problem is that pro footballers hammer pitches and what happens is that they make the surface into a sort of plasticine which makes it even more difficult for the water to get away. The grass gets thinner and thinner and the pitch is more likely to become uneven because there's no grass roots to hold the soil in place.

I've said it before on here but you may have heard of Brian Clough who insisted on having pitches at Derby and Notts Forest rolled flat. That sealed the surface so that water couldn't drain away which resulted in those pitches you'll remember from his glory days.

I might be wrong like cos I'm only a gardener from Hartlepool.

The pitch was reseeded in the close season, and I reckon due to the amount of rain we had over the summer it's not as perfect as in previous years.

It still beats the shit out of some pitches I've seen this year, especially ones where rugby league/union is played on it as well.

Still, let everyone think that we play on a ploughed field and we might get through to the 5th round.

I'm sure they said in the Radio 5 commentary, that the pitch had been covered for four or five days
before the game