Boss pleased with progress of the Banks's Stadium pitch...
THE BANKS'S Stadium pitch is continuing to make good progress.The surface was koro'ed at the end of May with an inch taken off the top to just leave the soil underneath. This in turn was harrowed together with 260 tonnes of fibre sand to make a consistent soil mix for the new pitch to be grown in.
The levelling process then took place to get it back to the true surface before it was over-seeded with 20 bags of hard-wearing rye grass seed. This has been fertilized every two weeks since whilst nature has also taken it course.
"We've totally revamped the pitch," said Saddlers' boss, Dean Smith. "It was basically a case of ripping it up and starting all over again.
"The pitch actually played well up until the game against AFC Bournemouth in January when we managed to get the match on despite heavy snow. The harsh weather really took its toll after that and then the England Under-21s played on it and it wasn't as we wanted it for the latter stages of the season.
"That said, we won four and drew four of our final eight home games, so I didn't effect us too badly in the run-in.
"It's certainly come on well over the past week or so and now we're just looking forward to getting out there and being able to play on it."