By Aston
February 21 2005

Ipswich Town grounds man Alan Ferguson is confident that the Portman road pitch will be playable tomorrow night.

Ready For The Freeze

Ipswich Town grounds man Alan Ferguson is confident that the Portman road pitch will be playable tomorrow night.

A Siberian few days are expected to hit the England in the next few days with East Anglia likely to bear the brunt of it but Town’s head grounds man is confident the pitch will be playable tomorrow night.

Ferguson: “We have the covers on the pitch at the moment and that has done its job.

“The forecast is horrendous and we have seen on the satellite pictures of the snow coming across Europe and heading our way.

“It has not been too bad so far, my friend at Middlesbrough tells me they had five inches of snow to contend with.

“We will be blowing the bubble on Monday and Tuesday and, if the weather drops below freezing, we will turn on the warm air blowers.

“We were given good warning about the impending weather and were prepared. We have been in all day working on making sure the pitch will be ready.”

Although the pitch is likely to playable the game may be called off if the roads leading up to Portman Road are deemed unsafe by the police and the safety officer at Portman Road.

Ferguson and his team have also been trying to combat this, and he added: “We have adapted machinery, which usually spreads sand, to use rock salt and all the areas around the ground are clear at the moment.

“What snow there has been, has been melted away and we will continue to work on that.

“The main priority is safety and, if the weather freezes areas around the ground and a bit further out, then it will be down to the police and the ground safety officer to decide if it is safe.”

Source: EADT.

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