Charlton goalkeeper Ben Hamer has no doubts about who is to blame for Charlton's poor performances. It's CP. No, not Chris Powell, the other one: Valley groundsman Colin Powell and the poor state of the Valley pitch. It hasn't been looking too good recently, but the winter weather has been awful. It seems a rather unusual explanation and I'm not sure it will go down too well with the Addickted who have a lot of time for Colin Powell as a former player.
Hamer told Richard Cawley of the South London Press: 'Our pitch this season has been in absolutely awful shape and we’ve not been able to play our football game. Apart from against Cardiff they have not been free-flowing matches - they’ve been nothing short of poor. The pitch has been a big part of that.'
'We need to get that rectified. It was a lot better last season. Lawrie Wilson had the ball on the byline [against Sheffield Wednesday] and when he was just about to play his pass it was all bobbly and horrible. I’m confident in our ability but I don’t feel confident of the pitch. You don’t know what it is going to do, because it is boggy one week and then hard and bobbly the next.'
'I know it’s easy to say that is the excuse for not being good at home but it is a really major factor. God knows why it is so poor - all I do know is that it is not in good nick. It is not conducive to what we’re trying to do. For Sheffield Wednesday it didn’t matter because their strength is launching the ball into the box and winning the aerial challenges.'
'We’ve been playing on some really decent surfaces away from home and have been able to exploit that. Burnley was very good, so was Derby. Watford was exceptional - especially considering they play rugby and football on it. It makes you wonder why ours is so terrible when it only has one game on it every two weeks.'
'Our groundsman won’t be too happy with what I’ve said - but it is something that needs to be addressed.'
Hamer should have seen the pitch in the winter in the 1950s.
5 comments:
Hamer has a point concerning the state of the pitch. It's certainly looking poor for this stage of the season and both goal areas in the 6 yard box have been re-turfed.Normally Paddy Powell strips out the old grass at the end of most seasons and re-seeds it, but I don't recall reading about this during the closed part of the season last year. My guess is that he wasn't allowed to under the newe regime and had to make do and we're paying the price now
I agree with Ben Hamer and the poor state of the pitch needs to be attended to.
I'm not buying it. It's ok for Cardiff (we one), but not other games? I haven't noticed the ball bobbly or moving overtly. The pitch has had good grass coverage and has not pooled water. The sides who have come and played football have done very well on it. I'm afraid that team selection, tactics, substitutions and motivation have had considerably more to do with it. We need to be far more ambitious and attacking at home.
Apparently spending on the pitch was cut back over the summer and we are now reaping the consequences.
Hamer doesn't know what he's talking about, maybe he's upset that his kit gets a bit muddy when he has to dive (to variable effect) across his goal.
Cutting spending on the pitch and then paying Fuller £14k per week to effectively play part-time simply doesn't add up.
Penny wise pound foolish?
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