ABSOLUTE JOKE
‘Well defender Carroll attacks Livi pitch
Wait till we face you at Fir Park.
That was the strong message from Motherwell defender Jake Carroll as he laid seige to Livingston’s plastic park.
The 27-year-old, who joined the Steelmen this summer from Cambridge, was adamant that the only reason Motherwell didn’t make it five wins on the bounce was the dodgy pitch they were forced to play on.
After both sides laboured to a scoreless draw on their Scottish Premiership opener on Saturday, he revealed he can’t to see who comes out on top when the Lions make the return trip to Lanarkshire later in November.
Fuming Carroll said: “Nobody wants to play on that kind of surface.
“We do not have these kind of pitches in English football. Hopefully they might get rid of them up here eventually.
“You have to deal with the circumstances.
“Other teams are going to have to deal with it and it is certainly not ideal.
“You see the teams that play on plastic and train on it every day tend to have a bit of an advantage.
“Look at Kilmarnock and how well they did last season.
“Plastic might give teams like Livingston and Kilmarnock an unfair advantage but you can flip that and say they have to come to our place and play on grass.
“It is swings and roundabouts and I will wait until we get them back at our place.”
Car roll has made a big impression since joining Motherwell, putting in several impressive performances so far.
And he hopes the Steelmen will return to winning ways once they get back playing on the grass.
The former Huddersfield man said: “They (Livingston) water the pitch quite heavily beforehand.
“Lots of players were slipping in the opening 20 minutes, myself included. On those type of pitches players tend to wear moulds and not many choose to wear studs.
“It was always going to be difficult coming here on the opening day. They are a big, physical side and we know what kind of football they play.
“It was about standing up to them and trying to play our own football. We struggled to do that at times but ground out a point.
“We knew what to expect with the pitch and we trained on astro the day before.
“We know what surface Livingston play on as it’s wellknown. It was always going to be sticky and you just have to deal with it the best you can.
“It is a point gained but we’re still disappointed in the performance as we can play a lot better.
“It is a sign of a good group of lads and how close we are that we can grind out a point if we don’t play well.”
Motherwell next face champions Celtic at Fir Park on Saturday.
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