New 3G pitch in the pipeline for New Bayview

East fife: Boss Naysmith admits he has mixed feelings over decision to rip up turf

East Fife manager Gary Naysmith has admitted to having mixed feelings after the club confirmed they will be playing on a synthetic surface from the start of next season.

The turf at New Bay view will be torn up in mid-May to be replaced with a state-ofthe - 3 G pitch in time for the 2017-18 campaign as part of a wider project to benefit the community.

That will open up a wide range of opportunities for local groups in the Levenmouth area, but for East Fife it will mean an entirely different home advantage as the days of playing on grass at their Methil ground draw to a close.

Naysmith’s main focus is all about the football, and the Fifers’ boss had his say on the development yesterday.

“I can see why we are doing it because it’s great for the community, but when you’ve been voted the best pitch in Scotland last year and it’s now going to go, there’s always going to be a bit of sadness there,” he told The Courier.

“Being an old school footballer you always enjoy a good grass pitch and Bayview is definitely one of the top pitches in Scotland.

“So there’s a bit of sadness there, but I realise especially for the part-time clubs you’ve got to move with the times and do what’s best for the community and the club.

“By helping the community it’s eventually going to help the club, with more money coming in and stuff like that.

“Although I love my time here, I’ll go at some stage – whether that’s my choice or East Fife’s choice – and this facility is hopefully going to be here for an awful lot of years.

“But in terms of just the football though, the club must make sure that the best pitch possible that they can afford goes down because, without naming clubs, there are different levels of pitches you play on.

“You can feel it yourself when you play on it. There are quite a few teams now in the lower divisions who have astroturf pitches and they are all different.

“So we need to make sure that we get a pitch that players I’ m trying to attract are happy to play on, and a pitch that will last.”

Naysmith praised the Methil club for working with Fifers for the Community, the charity behind the project, and said he hopes his players will be able to adjust to the new surface quickly as they already train on the synthetic surface at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh.

The League One club’s last possible fixture this term would fall on May 21, so work – which could take between six to eight weeks – is expected to start as soon as possible after the season’s end.

With the League Cup starting in mid-July time will be of the essence, although Naysmith said: “It will maybe just be that we’ll maybe need to go away from home for the first few games.

“It’s something that might need to be done. Liverpool did it at the start of this year with their new stand, so it’s a problem you can get past.”

A new state-of-the-art 3G pitch will be laid at New Bayview next summer.