Don't know if anyone watches this ITV programme on Saturday morning, but yesterday it was a recap of highlights Derby v Stoke 1975. I was watching football then, but that pitch took my breath away.
The Baseball ground was notorious for the state of the pitch. I went there a few times since 1984 when I moved to this part of the world and it never ceased to amaze me that referees deemed it playable. I could never understand why they didn't get a plastic pitch, it would have been justifiable.
That pitch sometimes had more sand than Scarborough beach,but I still get nostalgic for the ‘old days’ there was some real skill on show, makes a bit of a mockery of what folks complain about these days.
Jimmy Greenhoff - ex Barnsley Boys; Ian Moores - played for us on loan; Kevin Hector - scored five against us for Bradford PA; Salmons - ex-Sheffield United; Rioch - scored that cracker past Roy Ironside for Luton. Memories.
For all the nerds on here the reason the pitch was so bad was it was below street level so all the water from the drain around the ground used to run down and stop the drains under the pitch from working so the water would back up every time it rained and sit in the grass on the pitch.. I spoke the the groundsman about when I ran the line there about 1994!
Fascinating. Wonder if their title win was down to the pitch? Even back then I find it hard to believe they got away with such a poor playing surface. Mind you did not stop Alan Hudson and Greenhoff looking class in the highlights.
There's footage of that somewhere, though I can't find it on YouTube. John Motson gets so excited his head is about to explode.
Can anyone remember when the BBC still went to the ground even if the game was postponed? I remember a Cup tie in the early nineties where they went to the City Ground just to show it was snowing and it went off. I also remember ITV doing something similar for a League Cup game.