MD Ian Milne says the poor current state of the Portman Road pitch is down to the number of games played on it during January and adverse weather conditions, however, he says the club are looking at ways of improving it going forward.
In addition to first-team fixtures, the Portman Road surface staged two FA Youth Cup ties and a U23s Premier League Cup match
during January with the latter played in heavy rain.
"We’re talking with [groundsman] Ben [Connell],” Milne told BBC Radio Suffolk’s Life’s a Pitch. "He does a great job on there. I think I mentioned before, there were about eight games in January when we normally have three, so that upset the balance.
"Plus, it’s another dull day today and like us, the grass needs the sun. But we are looking at how we’re going to improve it going forward.
"We had an agronomist’s report on it and they said there’s nothing wrong with the pitch it’s just those matches and the weather.”
Former groundsman Alan Ferguson has previously said that ideally the pitch needs expensive work deep below the surface, something which has been long been pencilled in to be done once Town return to the Premier League.
"Of course we’re going to look at the other options,” Milne continued. "I think there are only two natural soil pitches in the Championship and it does cost a lot of money to put a new pitch in and sometimes you have to have a replica pitch at the training ground, so it’s not just one pitch it’s two pitches.
"And with the underground heating, it would cost about a million or a million and a half. It’s a big question. And it doesn’t stop then, it’s still got to have a major upkeep throughout the year.”
Groundsman Connell's Turf Journal, a regular blog on the pitches at Portman Road and Playford Road here.