St Mirren v Falkirk

[Shadwell Dog]

With Houston no nearer in signing a decent poacher I would say a point would be a decent result away in paisley. We've had a decent start and I was hoping a couple of new faces would be in to build on that but that would now seem remote as Houston struggles to find anyone wanting to sign for him it would seem.

[sergie's no1 fan]

With Houston no nearer in signing a decent poacher I would say a point would be a decent result away in paisley. We've had a decent start and I was hoping a couple of new faces would be in to build on that but that would now seem remote as Houston struggles to find anyone wanting to sign for him it would seem.

I was listening to the boy on Sportsound that used to be at Falkirk with Yogi and is now head of youth recruitment (something like that) at Southampton. He said when Falkirk moved to Stirling Uni that swayed a lot of players because of the facilites at the time but now they don't use it as often, would that be right?

Jim Goodwin was saying at the fans council golf day, our training complex and facilites are a big factor in getting players to come and sign for us.

Do you think your pitch puts players off signing for Falkirk?

[Guest]

I was listening to the boy on Sportsound that used to be at Falkirk with Yogi and is now head of youth recruitment (something like that) at Southampton. He said when Falkirk moved to Stirling Uni that swayed a lot of players because of the facilites at the time but now they don't use it as often, would that be right?

Jim Goodwin was saying at the fans council golf day, our training complex and facilites are a big factor in getting players to come and sign for us.

Do you think your pitch puts players off signing for Falkirk?

Falkirk train almost exclusively at TFS. They trained at Stirling for a week this year because the club has this belief they can make a few bob holding concerts at the stadium.

I believe having a plastic pitch, even the best one in Scotland, has cost us the chance to sign players who don't fancy training everyday day on it. I think most will live with games.

The surface at Falkirk is totally different to Hamilton, Kilmarnock and Dumfries. Two of these three have already been relaid because they were garbage.

[shull]

Hopefully the Match Officials will be up to speed with Lee Miller.

Still the biggest diving cheat in Scottish Football.

[wee_bairn]

I was listening to the boy on Sportsound that used to be at Falkirk with Yogi and is now head of youth recruitment (something like that) at Southampton. He said when Falkirk moved to Stirling Uni that swayed a lot of players because of the facilites at the time but now they don't use it as often, would that be right?

Jim Goodwin was saying at the fans council golf day, our training complex and facilites are a big factor in getting players to come and sign for us.

Do you think your pitch puts players off signing for Falkirk?

Callum Gallagher used our pitch as the reason why he signed for St. Mirren over Falkirk.

[Crawford Baptie]

Callum Gallagher used our pitch as the reason he signed for St. Mirren over Falkirk.

Basically a pussy then.

[MrDust]

I was listening to the boy on Sportsound that used to be at Falkirk with Yogi and is now head of youth recruitment (something like that) at Southampton. He said when Falkirk moved to Stirling Uni that swayed a lot of players because of the facilites at the time but now they don't use it as often, would that be right?

Jim Goodwin was saying at the fans council golf day, our training complex and facilites are a big factor in getting players to come and sign for us.

Do you think your pitch puts players off signing for Falkirk?

It probably does, no English league club play on astroturf, so that may put of loan deals or signings and there is still the stigma of it causing more injuries where there is no proof of that. A funny thing regarding that stigma was our old player Higginbotham slated astroturf after an injury to one of his Partick team mates versus Hamilton and then in the summer signs for Killie.

A lot of younger players nowadays grow up playing on it, some will prefer, some not, its really the older generations in the game that are stubborn who are looking for an excuse to slate it. St Mirren and Morton are lucky to have decent all year round grass pitches with our weather, we also had a decent pitch at one point but faulty undersoil heating and the big factor of losing Jim Dawson paid fit to that, hence why we got the astroturf in to follow a business model that has proven to be successful throughout the Scottish leagues.

Youth players will still sign up for us, they will see our recent record of giving youth a chance and players heading down south, also not being speared at training....!!

[FalkirkBuddie]

Any seats left on any Falkirk Supporters Buses?

[Mordecai]

It probably does, no English league club play on astroturf, so that may put of loan deals or signings and there is still the stigma of it causing more injuries where there is no proof of that. A funny thing regarding that stigma was our old player Higginbotham slated astroturf after an injury to one of his Partick team mates versus Hamilton and then in the summer signs for Killie.

A lot of younger players nowadays grow up playing on it, some will prefer, some not, its really the older generations in the game that are stubborn who are looking for an excuse to slate it. St Mirren and Morton are lucky to have decent all year round grass pitches with our weather, we also had a decent pitch at one point but faulty undersoil heating and the big factor of losing Jim Dawson paid fit to that, hence why we got the astroturf in to follow a business model that has proven to be successful throughout the Scottish leagues.

Youth players will still sign up for us, they will see our recent record of giving youth a chance and players heading down south, also not being speared at training....!!

I don't think luck has anything to do with it.

[Arch Stanton]

How much did St Mirren charge last season for away fans?

Feeling we've another Hibs here who still charge Premiership prices and try to get the away fans to bankroll their return to the topflight.

The price tomorrow will be the same as the last time Falkirk visited the new stadium almost 6 years ago. In fact walk up prices have been the same since the start of the 2008/09 season.

[MrDust]

I don't think luck has anything to do with it.

Majority other clubs in Scotland bar Celtic who can afford to replace their turf would say otherwise, it wasnt that severe weather last season and Dundee Utd was a mud field and Motherwell usually is a mess season in season out

[Arch Stanton]

it wasnt that severe weather last season and Dundee Utd was a mud field and Motherwell usually is a mess season in season out

both pitches have really pronounced slopes. Coincidence?

[MrDust]

both pitches have really pronounced slopes. Coincidence?

Did Motherwell not fix the slope and surely Dundee utd's pitch would be bad every year

I do recall one year in the SPL, I think we were in there at the time and bar Celtic and yourselves the pitches were mud fields, Aberdeen and ourselves being particularly bad.

[sergie's no1 fan]

Falkirk train almost exclusively at TFS. They trained at Stirling for a week this year because the club has this belief they can make a few bob holding concerts at the stadium.

I believe having a plastic pitch, even the best one in Scotland, has cost us the chance to sign players who don't fancy training everyday day on it. I think most will live with games.

The surface at Falkirk is totally different to Hamilton, Kilmarnock and Dumfries. Two of these three have already been relaid because they were garbage.

I noticed the difference from the tv admittedly. I couldn't tell it was an astro pitch against Dumbarton. Looked really slick, then again I think they play better when they are soaking. Killie's was brutal. Still is, again going by tv.

Callum Gallagher used our pitch as the reason why he signed for St. Mirren over Falkirk.

It probably does, no English league club play on astroturf, so that may put of loan deals or signings and there is still the stigma of it causing more injuries where there is no proof of that. A funny thing regarding that stigma was our old player Higginbotham slated astroturf after an injury to one of his Partick team mates versus Hamilton and then in the summer signs for Killie.

A lot of younger players nowadays grow up playing on it, some will prefer, some not, its really the older generations in the game that are stubborn who are looking for an excuse to slate it. St Mirren and Morton are lucky to have decent all year round grass pitches with our weather, we also had a decent pitch at one point but faulty undersoil heating and the big factor of losing Jim Dawson paid fit to that, hence why we got the astroturf in to follow a business model that has proven to be successful throughout the Scottish leagues.

Youth players will still sign up for us, they will see our recent record of giving youth a chance and players heading down south, also not being speared at training....!!

Yeah that was bizarre from Higginbotham. Can't see Killie being able to offer much more ££ than Thistle too. Yeah the next generation of footballers will have adapted to the pitches. Its obvious why teams do it, in a ideal world we'd all have grass pitches but with the weather and undersoil heating frying most pitches its a no brainer for clubs. Our pitch was re-laid last summer and I think it lasts 2-3 years. Will be interesting to see what happens when it needs re-laid again, whoever is running our club and what division we will be in.

Our pitch at Love St was great too until we had to dig it up to install undersoil heating and it just screwed up the drainage.

Falkirk and ourselves are in the same boat now with regards to youth ( apart from the spearing ). I wonder how much the running costs of the academies eat into our budgets. We haven't really made much money from transfers off our conveyor belt yet, I know it took Falkirk a few seasons before it kicked in but you's get at least a couple of good deals every season now.

[Arch Stanton]

Did Motherwell not fix the slope and surely Dundee utd's pitch would be bad every year

I do recall one year in the SPL, I think we were in there at the time and bar Celtic and yourselves the pitches were mud fields, Aberdeen and ourselves being particularly bad.

Motherwell's slopes about 7-8 feet from the East Stand side across to the Main Stand. DUs is even worse sloping on a diagonal plane from the corner between The Shed/George Fox towards the corner where the players emerge.

[Mordecai]

Majority other clubs in Scotland bar Celtic who can afford to replace their turf would say otherwise, it wasnt that severe weather last season and Dundee Utd was a mud field and Motherwell usually is a mess season in season out

From an interview with our groundsman in 2009: "The pitch at Love Street was an old soil based pitch, it wasn't a purpose built football pitch, it was just an area of soil that was seeded!

"Now here at St Mirren Park we have a purpose built fibre re-inforced pitch which means that the playing surface is slightly firmer to what the players have been used to. The surface on the new pitch plays a lot quicker and slicker which can be controlled by the irrigation system we have. It looks to me that the players prefer the pitch to be that bit slicker. That's not a criticism, if the pitch is allowing the game to be played at one hundred miles per hour then I think that is a good thing."

Clearly our pitch was built with some forethought about how it's going to cope in the years to come. Hardly lucky, it's more down to the hard work of our groundsman and the system we have in place. There's no excuse for a professional team in Scotland with a modern stadium not to have a similar system in space. I always remember Falkirk having a decent pitch at TFS, so I'd be surprised if it was changed because it was in a poor state.

[djchapsticks]

I don't think luck has anything to do with it.

Indeed. St Mirren and Morton have two of the best groundstaffs in the country. Didn't Falkirk also have a consistently cracking pitch in their first 3 or 4 years at TFS?

[MrDust]

Motherwell's slopes about 7-8 feet from the East Stand side across to the Main Stand. DUs is even worse sloping on a diagonal plane from the corner between The Shed/George Fox towards the corner where the players emerge.

Easter road is usually fine

[MrDust]

Indeed. St Mirren and Morton have two of the best groundstaffs in the country. Didn't Falkirk also have a consistently cracking pitch in their first 3 or 4 years at TFS?

We did, but a mix of undersoil heating and our award winning groundsman Jim dawson leaving to murrayfield to do Scottish rugby paid to that.

State of the art drainage too, tho so was the failed undersoil heating. I'd personally say a lot was down to Jim Dawson, he definitely knew his stuff.

St Johnstone pitch was a mess threadbare last season and even Rangers was one season and they Celtic have money to spend on it, well in their case at the time, somebody else's.

Anyway, having a decent pitch hasn't made the results better, would be interesting to know the win rate on it, for any statto out there, I recall it taking a lifetime to win on it initially and last season's form wouldn't have helped

[Arch Stanton]

Easter road is usually fine

Hibs did level their pitch quite a few years ago.