Match Thread Bradford City V Salford - Tue 23 January 2024 7.45pm

There is definitely a visible improvement of the playing surface when we get to the harsher months.

Anyone doubting that fact should have a look back at the Sunderland FA Cup game on Youtube.

 

Looking at the potential dates for the rearranged fixture and it could be 16th Jan, 23rd Jan, 6th Feb or 27th Feb.

That avoids other midweek fixtures for both teams and the Bristol Street Motors schedule.

 

Answer this then. Why did almost every other game in the land go ahead despite having the same amount of rain?

 

Many have commented the same David. You are absolutely right, the difference is pretty stark.

 

Stop digging …it’s getting silly. Start fact checking again before commenting then the hole doesn’t get as deep.

How do you know what the rainfall was in Cleethorpes versus Manningham over a 7 day period? You don’t , I don’t , but I can check . It’s that simple .

 

The pitch has done well in recent years and looks so much better than in recent years. The Wrexham game recently there were fans on here and other social media saying the rain was so bad on the Friday that the club should call off the game. However we were actually watering the pitch on the Saturday before kick off. I believe this is the first game called off at Valley Parade due to waterlogged pitch since the drainage was done in 2018.

 

Who mentioned Cleethorpes? I’m not a meteorologist, I’m not going to analyse rainfall data at every EFL football ground in the country but my general observation is that our game was 1 of only 5 affected in the whole country which seems odd. I’m sceptical that Bradford had anymore rainfall than say Huddersfield or Manchester.

 

Let it go loyal, its not worth worrying about.

 

As has already been highlighted, Huddersfield have a modern, purpose built, ground that would have had a full spec modern drainage system installed when it was built. Whereas we have a very old ground, that we don't own, built on a slag heap on the side of a valley that would cost many millions to fully excavate and lay modern drainage under - even assuming it could feasibly be done given the substrate it's built on. It's simply not worth the expense and disruption to prevent one postponement every five years. Rupp certainly wouldn't be financing it, so it would inevitably impact on the playing budget.

 

I'm not sure why you have got yourself so worked up about the first postponement at VP due to rain for 5 years.

From a purely selfish point of view, I was actually glad it was called off as I was laid up ill over the weekend so would have missed it!

 

It is when Salford are depleted through injury and will probably be full strength again by the time the game comes around.

 

I seem to recall something about this being discussed before when the pitch drainage was mentioned as a reason why VP's pitch seems overly susceptible to waterlogging compared to other grounds. I doubt that anyone would dream of constructing a new stadium on land similar to where VP sits. It would undoubtedly cost much more to develop because it's basically on the slope of a valley.

 

You would have had a point a few years ago but solutions were found and not the cause of drainage issues now Karl.

 

Nah, footballs not that important.

 

Five games were postponed in L2, loyal!

 

I’m not sure that’s completely correct, is it? The club spent money in 2018 on improving the drainage, which has undoubtedly had a very positive impact on the general condition of the pitch and the avoidance of postponements. But I’m sure we were told that to do the full Monty work to get it up to top modern standards (such that Saturday’s game could have still gone ahead after last week’s torrential rain) we’d have to have excavated much deeper. And because of the nature of the substrate that would have been prohibitively expensive. So the 2018 work was a reasonable compromise between ‘good enough’ functionality and excessive cost.

Someone will doubtless correct me if I’m imagining this.