DIRTY TRICKS? THEY’RE PART OF THE GAME

IF SWANSEA boss Steve Cooper thought the pitch was bad at Cardiff last weekend, he should have tried playing away at Bury on a Tuesday night in 1998.

I’ve seen far worse surfaces in my playing days - and far dirtier tricks than a manager letting the grass grow out a little bit.

Managers will do anything they can to win games of football. When good passing teams have come to our ground in the past, I know that the manager has said to the groundsman ‘Don’t water the pitch’.

The last thing he wants is the grass to be perfectly suited to moving the ball quickly. We’d get played off the park.

And when you play direct, as Cardiff can do, you want the ball to hold up in the final third. That’s why the grass is long.

I know managers who have brought the sides of the pitch two or three yards closer to the 18-yard box, just so a player with a long throw can reach the penalty spot.

I remember when Gus Poyet came to Brighton, he said the pitch was too small. He wanted us to play out from the back, so he needed a bigger surface, more water on the grass.

Dean Wilkins, another Brighton manager, once painted the away dressing room purple. He’d heard it was a dark, oppressive colour that made people feel unwelcome.

Brentford never had a plug socket so you couldn’t play any music, and only one toilet that didn’t have a closing door.

Clubs do all sorts to make opponents feel uncomfortable.

I’ve been to plenty where they didn’t even provide hot showers. I’m not saying it’s done all the time, but you can’t blame a manager for trying to get an edge. It’s what they are paid to do.