The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Pitch poll – Tannadice surface the best in the league, saysnew survey:
UNITED: Playing surface voted best in Championship in PFA Scotland survey
Tannadice has been voted the best playing surface in the Championship by those in the know – Scotland’s footballers.
Dundee United’s pitch was also named the fifth best in the country behind overall winners Forthbank Stadium (Stirling Albion), Balmoor (Peterhead), Hampden (Queen’s Park) and Fir Park (Motherwell.)
Dundee’s Dens Park finished in seventh place overall in the poll that was partly run by PFA Scotland, the players’ union.
Throughout last season, players at all 42 Scots senior clubs were asked to rate the pitch they played on every time they were away from home via a specially commissioned Pitch rat era pp.
Tannadice was voted the finest in the Championship with a 4.12 rating (five is very good and one is very poor) and was the only Championship stadium to secure over four in the study, with closest challengers the Paisley 2021 Stadium (St Mirren) and East End Park (Dunfermline) scoring 3.88 and 3.86 respectively.
David Southern, United’s general manager, said: “Dundee United is proud that the pitch has been voted the best in the Championship and fifth best in Scotland.
“This is a testament to the hard work done by Billy Milton and his groundstaff.
“Managers and players always want the best possible surface to play football on and Billy and his team have delivered a terrific surface this season and should be proud of the achievement.
“But the hard work won’t stop as this close season the board have invested once again in the playing surface as we continue to improve the club on and off the pitch.”
Hamilton’s pitch at New Douglas Park was branded the worst in Scotland.
It received an average score of just 1.18 out of five but the good news is that the Lanarkshire club have already started work on installing a new 4G surface ahead of next season.