SAINTS DIGGING DEEP TO HELP PITCH PROBLEMS

Saints Chairman Geoff Brown has pledged to get the root of the McDiarmid Park pitch problems in the summer but in the meantime work is underway to make running repairs to a playing surface which has struggled to cope with the elements since late autumn.

Offering an apology to the supporters of both clubs who were inconvenienced by Saturday’s morning’s cancellation of the game against Aberdeen, Brown said: “It is unbelievably disappointing and I’m sorry for the supporters, our corporate guests and everyone else who were left inconvenienced and disappointed.

“The postponements we have had over the winter – not all of them down to the condition of the playing surface – will have cost us a six figure sum of money. The situation is wearing for everyone involved with the club who have to deal with the fall-out from these postponements and I particularly feel for Head Groundsman Chris Smith. The guy did everything he could to get that game on and is totally blameless.

“The problem areas had been made playable, the covers were down and no rain got onto the pitch. But water already in the ground just isn’t draining away and it’s acting like a sponge. When you see the problems of flooding at the roundabout on the Crieff Road close to the stadium you don’t have to be a genius to work out that we are going to have a problem at a lower level.

“We could do with the man above bringing us some better weather to let the pitch dry out.”

Never a fan of undersoil heating, the Chairman continued: “We have a ‘hard pan’ at a low level under the pitch which isn’t allowing the water to get through to the drains. Years ago we would simply have drilled spikes deep into the sandy ground to aid drainage but we can’t do that because of the pipe work for the undersoil heating – the implications of hitting them are horrendous.”

The work to carry out short-term repairs began yesterday and will be complete in plenty of time ahead of the next home match – the visit of Dundee United a week tonight.