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.”

Photo: Action Images

ChateauWines added 10:43 - Aug 10 it looked like sand that had been painted green. Any twist or turn and it fell apert
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SuffolkGazette added 10:44 - Aug 10 I met Marcus Evans briefly at half time (this is not a wind up) and he said the pitch was "awful". Other than that, he was pleased to be 1-0 up at the time!
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bluefeast added 10:49 - Aug 10 Hes on holiday mate. Given interviews in phone calls from his holiday home. You may of met someone who told you they were marcus evans lol .
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tractornat added 10:53 - Aug 10 Marcus Evans was there Saturday sat in the directors box, the Brentford pitch is being relaid when there's a gap in their fixtures
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SuffolkGazette added 10:58 - Aug 10 He was indeed in directors box, as was I on a corporate jolly. Let me tell you the beer in the "hospitality suite" is cans of Tetley!
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HarryfromBath added 11:03 - Aug 10 He's quite right. I was sitting in the main stand and I saw Ryan glance momentarily back at the pitch in the second half when it divoted and the ball bobbled after an innocuous challenge. It was in particularly poor condition in the area adjacent to the stand, as if a layer of turf had been laid on a bed of dry sand and not rooted properly. Home supporters were grumbling about it throughout the game.

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parhamblue added 11:15 - Aug 10 The players of both sides should still be on the beach at this time of year. Oh wait, they were!
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Len_Brennan added 12:15 - Aug 10 Great bit of business by Mick getting Ryan Fraser on loan as part of the Mings deal (+ £8m - unbelievable). It's just a pity Eddie Howe was smart enough not to sell him, becasue he looks like he's going to be worth £8m himself by the end of the season. Thankfully we have a season-long loan on this deal, as Bournmenouth may well have been wanting him back early if he continues to play as well as he did on his debut. Hopefully he'll have helped us get promoted before he has to go back.

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muccletonjoe added 13:01 - Aug 10 Heard he was our mom on Saturday. Looking forward to seeing him against Sheffield
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jas0999 added 13:08 - Aug 10 Some pretty poor defending from us in the last four minutes of stoppage time as well! Fraser looks like an excellent addition however. I'm just worried what options we have if both he and Niles go off? Other wingers at the club out of favour, which just leaves the hard workers, but little creativity, pace or goals.
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DiamondGezzer added 13:15 - Aug 10 Jas, I believe they are on a season long loan without any call backs.
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itfcserbia added 13:17 - Aug 10 Man, this still hurts... Reminding of that last gasp goal... Heartbreaking... Bring on Stevenage so we can forget this!
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blues1 added 14:21 - Aug 10 tractornat. they've just had a 3 month break between their fixtures, called the close season to get the pitch sorted. what chance have they of sorting it in a couple of weeks?
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blueherts added 15:48 - Aug 10 The pitch was a disgrace - teams at this level should be heavily fined for that Ironically it certainly wont help their 'Pure football mantra' although they seemed to like route one more in the last 10 when Gray came on Aree with Blues1 , that pitch is shot , they have a match this week , I think in LC and cannot see how it will improve - shocking
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dannyrr added 19:13 - Aug 10 It's true the pitch was shocking. - wasn't sure whether it was artificial or not as it looked so threadbare and lots of sand. Tackles tended to bring up chunks of the pitch making the pitch look awful. What did they do yo the pitch in the break - certainly no maintenance and can't see how re- surfacing it will help.
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dirtydingusmagee added 20:44 - Aug 10 apparently they had a lot of work done on the pitch [drainage] but we cant blame the pitch,its the same for both sides.We blew it, simple as,we must learn to keep going till final whistle .It may only be the first match but at the end of season 2 points could be the difference between a chance to go up or not ,or to stay up and not get relegated,we should not have given those two points away like that .

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