Wolves confident over Molineux pitch

Wolves are confident their pitch won't be a 'pain in the grass' this winter.

Changes to the mix in the surface's top layer, as well as a much milder winter, have combined to leave the Molineux turf still looking lush and healthy, despite the recent heavy rain.

This time last year, the new £1m playing surface had already cut up quite badly, despite only being relaid the previous summer.

Wolves' head groundsman Wayne Lumbard said: "It was a brand new, state-of-the-art pitch but we had a few teething problems which we only found out about during the worst winter for many years, which accelerated them.

"So it was a case of putting up with the problems as best we could because it was in the middle of the season, but we also conducted various tests on it.

"The company who laid the pitch weren't happy with the profile, so we took the top 15 millimetres off, as we would normally do at the end of a season anyway, and added another 15mm of a more concentrated mix of sand and soil to make it firmer.

"We worked with the original contractor M J Abbott, a local firm and Fibrelastic, but all we did was change the amount of the mix.

"It's been growing in with the roots and mixed in much better and the grass is growing really well.

"This time last year we'd had five or six weeks of really bad weather and the undersoil heating had been on for five or six weeks.

"This time we've had milder temperatures, we haven't used the undersoil heating on and the fixtures have been fewer."

Lumbard said the pitch has attracted plenty of positive comments.

"An FA assessor and the referee have to mark the pitch out of five for every game and we're getting better marks for it now," he said.

"Everyone has been saying how good it looks.

"When we played Chelsea at home last season, there were complaints about it and the surface was terrible.

"But we beat the better teams on it. Now the pitch is much better, let's hope we still benefit from it as well."

Lumbard is confident the pitch should stay looking healthy and lush.

"We monitor the pitch daily for any signs of fatigue, but I can't see there being many problems, providing we don't have a disastrous January and February in terms of bad weather," he said.

"We've only got another four games between now and March, which is when the grass recovers and starts growing again, so I'm confident we won't have any problems."