Bradford City waste no time in work to repair home pitch

Work on the much-criticised Valley Parade surface has been underway for 10 days – since it was ripped up straight after the final game.

Contractors got to work within 48 hours of City’s win over Newport with an extensive repair programme recommended by experts.

The EFL had contacted the club in March following the Notts County postponement – the third game to be called off at Valley Parade in the season - about bringing in specialist pitch consultants STRI.

They were commissioned within the week and carried out an in-depth check of the surface with their report advising where improvements needed to be made.

The recommended work was beyond the club’s original budget for the pitch but owner Stefan Rupp agreed to the extra funding.

Extra gravel bands, channels that run along beneath the surface, have been put in to improve drainage – trebling the previous amount. They have been covered with 174 tonnes of fibre sand that went in over the weekend.

Grass seed was put down yesterday and the club hope to have the pitch fully covered by the end of the month. They were just digging it up at the same stage last year.

“We’ve obviously had a really difficult season with the pitch after pretty good ones in previous years,” admitted chief executive Ryan Sparks.

“That was really hard to take for our ground staff and it didn’t assist with on-field matters at times.

“We were late to start last summer due to the play-offs and the contractor being unable to make the second date.

“Then we had issues where sprinklers were damaged during the works. Everything was a long way behind where it needed to be.

“When you add all that to more than double the previous season’s rainfall, then you have a problem.

“That unfolded pretty rapidly into the winter months, whereas in the previous two seasons you barely noticed.”

The Valley Parade pitch hit its lowest point with the Notts County postponement (Image: X)

The much earlier start will allow the pitch 15 weeks to grow in time for the new campaign. City plan to host one pre-season friendly but that will be in late July.

The increased amount of rain over the last season has had an impact everywhere. Crawley’s play-off game with MK Dons this week had to be put back by a day because of a waterlogged pitch.

Sparks added: “Nobody is immune to this but we’ve got to take some precautionary action for the future because the weather is clearly changing.

“I can’t remember a season where nearly every match day you’d arrive and it was raining.

“It was a fairly straightforward situation but obviously from a financial perspective, the club couldn’t afford to implement the work on its own steam.

“I’m grateful that Stefan stepped in and fully supported that because we’ll benefit not only this season, but in the seasons ahead.

“Providing they’ve got the tools and the time, I think the ground staff have proven to everyone that they can produce one of the best pitches in the division.”