Gillingham FC Forum

The next two home games have (strangely) been moved. This is to allow for the pitch to be relaid. The Blackpool match originally set for next Tuesday evening will be moved with a date to be set and the Tottenham U23 match will be held at an alternative venue.

Why the Spurs game cannot be played on a different date is a mystery. More of a mystery is why now? We have had the whole summer with no home friendlies to allow the pitch to recover (especially when fun days etc were held on it presumably because they planned to relay the pitch) yet are now planning to do so just a month or so into the season. This seems quite bizarre to me as the timing is all wrong. It may be a bit bare in places but it's not the sandy quagmire of some recently. I can even see the home tie on the 13th being moved as this is only a couple of days later after the 2 weeks it is set to take.

Todays players at this level are thoroughly spoilt. I remember when you couldn't see a single blade of grass on the pitch, even in the old 1st div(premier league). I remember the first games of the season when the whole pitch was green and thinking it didn't look right. It didn't seem to upset our maestros Chopper Proverbs or Spider Burgess. Sad to hear about the passing of Gordon Riddick and Ron Newman a short while ago. Ron went on to bigger and better things, being inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame. I guess we're all getting older.

Not me mate I get younger every year, I used to think it was just my imagination, but now I am in adult diapers I know for sure it's true.

Seems crazy putting a pitch down in late September,what is there three weeks left of a growing season, four or five at most, that thing will be like an old rug by November, turned up at all the corners where the turf squares were laid.

It's a hybrid pitch, apparently the same as Wembley's and the only one in the country. The timing is ridiculous as we now have a home game to play at Charlton FC!