Dave Saltman gives his monthly update on the state of the surfaces
Shrewsbury Town’s Head Groundsman Dave Saltman admits that he is pleased with the state of the pitches as winter slowly begins to set-in.
Earlier this week saw the first frosts at the Montgomery Waters Meadow, but the stadium pitch and the training ground continue to play well.
“The stadium’s good”, admitted Saltman.
“There’s plenty of grass cover on it, it’s playing well, not getting much in the way of damage and it’s taking all of the rain well, but it always does. We are keeping it clean, keeping it brushed, fertilised, so we are pleased with the stadium at the moment. “
The biggest change at Shrewsbury Town this season has been the move to the new training ground. Improvements in the pitches have been vital in making the move feasible and Saltman is happy with how the training ground is standing up.
“I’m delighted”, said Dave.
“We had a lot of rain a few weeks ago where we had heavy downpours overnight and into the morning and there were parts of the pitch that were a little bit softer, but the drainage is working and we continue to try and improve that.
“We are regularly aerating it. We earthquaked it a couple of weeks ago and we are verti-draining it again this Friday. The pitches are being maintained every day, they are being mowed every day, we fertilise them on at least a monthly basis and everyone seems to be very pleased with them.”
The move to the training ground has opened up the pitch at the back of the stadium for us by Shrewsbury Town in the Community and Dave believes that pitch is in as good a condition as it ever has been.
“Again, we are very pleased”, Saltman continued.
“That was sand-slitted in the summer and the slits have grown over nicely. We are cutting it fairly regularly – two or three times a week now. We had it weed killed last week, we had it verti-drained last week and we also fertilised it last week, so I’m pleased with that.
“Historically, the pitch used to really struggle going into the winter and the team used to have to play elsewhere. Since we sand-slitted it, despite all of the rain that we’ve had, the pitch has drained really well, so I’m very happy that that pitch will keep us going right through this winter now.”