Town groundsman Alan Ferguson says that the new pitch is in good enough condition to stage the rest of the Blues' reserve games at Portman Road. Town have played a number of second string matches at the Playford Road Training Centre this season due to the poor state of the main playing surface.

The award-winning groundsman has confirmed that the very hot summer was the major factor which contributed to the pitch laid in the summer failing to settle: “We had temperatures up in the nineties for five or six weeks, and that effectively shut the plant system down so that it was not growing.

“We also had a contamination problem at the ground and adding the two situations together was too much for the pitch to handle.”

Ferguson has also admitted that an error was made when he and his staff watered and fertilised the pitch, something he now concedes that in the circumstances was the wrong move.

The surface got worse and worse as the season progressed and a second pitch was laid in December, which Ferguson says has played well up to now. Town's first reserve game of 2007 is against the MK Dons next Tuesday (KO 7pm).

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