‘Only an excuse’ – Holt attacks calls for artificial ban

Livingston manager Gary Holt claims an excuse culture is behind calls for artificial pitches to be banned in Scotland’s top flight.

PFA Scotland says every Ladbrokes Premiership player outside of Hamilton, Livi and Kilmarnock – the three clubs with plastic surfaces – has signed a petition demanding they are scrapped.

But Holt was unapologetic about his side’s surface, which replaced a grass pitch in the summer after their promotion.

When asked about the petition, Holt said: “I’m not bothered and that’s me being polite.

“It keeps getting talked about time and time again. But it’s an excuse. People look for excuses all the time when things are not going their way.

“If I win or lose home or away I never blame the pitch.

“Fifa has declared you can use them, so who’s to say we can’t use them?

“I think there’s more important things in Scottish football that (we) can be worried about trying to implement.

“I hear people moaning on radio phone-ins, blogs and forums that there’s not enough grassroots pitches, there’s not enough astros for kids, the grass pitches are a disgrace.

“We can’t have it both ways – you can’t ask for councils and communities and the SFA to put in plastic pitches for kids to play on yet they can’t play on them when it gets to professional level.”

Holt had a response to all of PFA Scotland’s major concerns.

On chairman Liam Craig’s claim that inconsistency of the surfaces was having a major impact, Holt said: “There’s a goal at either end, play the game.

“We don’t moan when we go to nine places that have grass pitches.

“We don’t moan when grass pitches are too hard, some of the grass pitches at this time of the year are not great.

“When we have frosty days, where do their players train? Indoors, which is harder than astro, or on astro because the grass is unavailable.

“It’s an excuse, move on from it, please.”

Livingston manager Gary Holt.