Portsmouth boss’ Fratton Park pitch update amid Sheffield United postponement fears
Pompey fans are fearing another Championship postponement against Sheffield United, after the relentless rainfall of recent weeks. The Blues head coach updates on the issue this evening.
John Mousinho has confirmed Pompey’s clash with Sheffield United is not in doubt at present.
And the Blues boss believes the Blues’ Fratton Park pitch is currently standing up to the huge amount of rainfall it needs to deal with, to allow Saturday’s clash to go ahead.
Pompey v Sheff Utd ‘isn’t in doubt’ at present
Mousinho acknowledged, however, the Championship game taking place will once again be in the lap of the weather gods - with more rain on the horizon before the weekend.
Pompey fans are fearing another postponement against the Blades, after last week’s home clash with Ipswich Town fell foul of the poor weather of recent weeks. That follows on from a frozen pitch seeing the first scheduled meeting between the two sides last month, also bite the dust.
Fratton saw 205mm of rainfall last month against a five-year average of 90mm, in a clear indication of the huge amounts of precipitation seen.
Speaking this afternoon, though, Mousinho sees a relatively calm period in comparison to the driving rain of late helping Pompey’s playing surface.
There are two days of rain forecasted for Thursday and Friday, however, with it currently due to be dry on the day of the game with Chris Wilder’s side.
Mousinho said: ‘The game isn’t in doubt, as things stand at the moment.
‘That’s because we’ve had a couple of days where it’s dried out. Today is a dry day, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m preparing for the game to be on.
‘I’ve lived in England for 35 years and I’ve learned not to trust the weather forecast in that time.
‘But the pitch is fine, the pitch has held up pretty well this season. It was waterlogged for the game against Ipswich and it’s had some heavy wear over the past few weeks, but I felt it was fine against West Brom.
‘The staff are working hard and I think the pitch will be fine, but it’s just about how much rain we get.’
Pitch challenges isn’t ‘isolated to just Portsmouth’
With January seeing records broken for the amount of rainfall across the UK, the weather has seen a clear knock-on effect on playing surfaces in English football.
Pompey’s clash with Preston last weekend saw one such clear example, with Mousinho branding the Deepdale pitch the worst he’s seen this season.
Mousinho thinks the club’s grounds staff have worked impressively to stop the Fratton pitch falling into a similar condition, with their colleagues at clubs around the country face big challenges.
He added: ‘It’s happening across the league. Look at Preston’s pitch, that was probably the worst pitch we’ve played on this season.
‘It does happen sometimes (where the weather deteriorates the pitch), I’ve not known rain like the past four weeks for a long time.
‘Living in this country we’re used to it, but I’ve not seen anything quite this consistent and heavy.
‘There’s hundreds of flood warnings across the country, so I don’t think we’re talking about an issue which is isolated to just Portsmouth.’