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Portman Road Pitch Highly Commended - Ipswich Town News

The Portman Road pitch, which is set for a major overhaul this summer, has been highly commended by the EFL.

Burnley, Derby County and Newport County were named the 2022/23 Grounds Teams of the Season in the Championship, League One and League Two respectively, but Portsmouth and Town were highly commended in League One.

The judgement is reward for groundsman Ben Connell and his staff, who have been working in less than ideal conditions with the upcoming work on the pitch long overdue.

The Portman Road playing surface was one of the first aspects of Town CEO Mark Ashton identified as needing improvement after he took on his role after leaving Bristol City in June 2021.

Initially, the plan was to replace it last year but with the building work to open up the south-east corner required before the refurbishment could take place, the Blues have had to wait until this summer for the first deep down pitch regeneration since the close season ahead of Town's FA Cup-winning 1977/78 campaign.

"The pitch is on track,” Ashton said at the recent Fans’ Forum, with work set to start as soon as the season ends with the way the work is being carried out meaning it’s not feasible for the old turf to be sold off to fans.

"It’s the summer project, you’re into millions of pounds for this project, not £1 million, millions.

"And that’s because the substructure of the pitch, how far we’ve got to dig down, you’re still no 100 per cent sure what you’re going to find when you do dig down.

"Three stands have been built in relatively recent years, but we’ve taken so many boreholes now and we’ve got a relatively good understanding of what we’re going to find.

"Undersoil heating is going in, that’s no mean feat. The whole new track is going in, which means there is levelling work to be done all the way around the pitch.

"We’ve had really good pitch designers in, it’ll be a hybrid pitch, back in the day they would have called it Desso, but that patent has gone, the manufacturers have done some world class pitches.

"It’s a big piece of work, but I think it will then set us in good stead for how we move forward.”

The work means there probably won’t be time for a Portman Road friendly this July: "Time is tight, pre-season home games this summer will be unlikely, I struggle to see where one would fit in, although I’m not going to write it off yet. But I think the reality is that every day is going to count to get that done.”

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