Debut goalscorer Ryan Fraser says he’d never played on a pitch as bad as the surface at Brentford’s Griffin Park on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, on loan from Bournemouth for the season, looked to have sealed an opening day three points for the Blues when he netted Town’s second goal five minutes after the restart until the Bees’ two late, late goals.
From the off the recently reseeded Griffin Park pitch cut up revealing a layer of sand below it and players of both teams had moments where they were hampered by it.
"The pitch was terrible. I've never played on a pitch as bad as that before, especially at the start of the season, never mind the end of the season," Fraser told BBC Radio Suffolk.
The Scotland U21 international said the mood amongst the squad was unsurprisingly low after the match: "We came into the dressing room and it was all doom and gloom, but we just need to learn from our mistakes and go again.
"Come the end of the season, this could be a vital point. Obviously when you're 2-0 up with minutes to go and you draw 2-2 it's not nice, but then again you always learn from your mistakes. If we learn from it, it won't happen again.”
Brentford’s head coach Marinus Dijkhuizen admitted that the Griffin Park surface is less than impressive: "The pitch is awful. It’s not good and that surprises me.
"I’ve been to Luton, Boreham Wood and Norwich and everywhere I see beautiful pitches and we want to play football, good football, play-making and that doesn’t help with that.”