September Football Diary 2011

For some, the football season will have already started, with pitches up and in use, some experiencing a flurry of pre-season friendlies, others may yet to be starting their season. Most of your pre season work should have been finalised with your pitches looking hopefully at their best about now.

Of course, the weather this summer has thrown us a challenge, the prolonged dry spell for many parts of the country will have inevitably dried out many grounds, resulting in dry hard pitches with little top growth. It will be more evident at clubs who have little no watering facilities for their pitches. It will then be a case of waiting for some much needed rain.

Autumn traditionally sees the last opportunity to put some fertiliser down. The application of a good balanced feed, with perhaps a seaweed tonic, may help to fill your grass out, but bear in mind the need to apply it in line with your feeding programme. Don't be tempted to apply too much nitrogen, as you may find yourself struggling to keep up with the flush of grass growth.

The seaweed tonic will help your grass get over the stresses of the summer. If you managed to hold some of your seed back from your earlier renovations, then you can use it to help fill out the wear prone areas on your pitches. Bear in mind also that the window of opportunity for spraying a selective weed killer is nearing a close, and you will need to factor this in before the end of the month.

Some of you will be on your final pitch preparations now, including setting out and initial marking your pitches. Always best at this stage to double check your measurements before committing to a white line, as this will show up badly if it is not straight and has to be corrected.

Setting Out and Marking Out

With the pitch prepared and in readiness for the start of the season the final job is to set out and put in the pitch markings. It may be that there are already goal sockets in the ground from which you have to marry up with, but for now we'll take it that you are starting from scratch.

It is important that you take care to get the measurements right when setting out. A few millimetres out at one end can lead to the pitch being a metre or more out of square at the far end of the pitch. To do this it is important that string lines are kept taught and that the right angles created are correctly formed.

So to get the 90 degree right angle we fall back on Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician who discovered that to get a right angled triangle, the square distance of the two short sides would be equal to the square distance of the longer side. In other words a² + b² = c².

These days the equation is more commonly known as the 3:4:5 triangle and is the method that nearly all Groundsmen use to set out a square or rectangle. The reason for this is that 3² + 4² = 5² or 9+16=25. The great thing is that this equation works in multiples of those numbers and for Groundsmen this is usually 30, 40 and 50 feet-this works fine on 1 x 100 metre tape. You could also use 15, 20 and 25 metres. Remember that the bigger the triangle at the start, the more accurate the pitch will be.

Check that your goal sockets are aligned with the goal line and the posts are upright. Correct this now to ensure a professional look, particularly with newly painted goal posts and nets ready to be put into place.

Try to keep casual play out of goalmouth areas. This can be easily achieved if you have a set of portable goals that can be moved around to different parts of your field or pitch. However, if you have socketed goals, then your task may be a little more difficult, requiring you to be pro-active in cordoning off the area when not in use.

Ensure you only buy approved goal posts from reputable suppliers.

Cutting: Continue cutting regularly 25 -37mm to ensure good sward density. It may be helpful sometimes with newly sown grasses to lightly roll the surface before cutting. This will ensure that the young seedlings do not get pulled out. Also ensure that any cutting equipment used is keenly set to cut without tearing.

Dragmatting and brushing: Continue the work of brushing to keep the air circulating around the base of the plant, particularly important for removing early morning dew and controlling disease. This will also help to reinforce the presentation of the pitch.

Verticutting: will help to ensure that the sward is kept clean of lateral growth that may be appearing and also help to ensure that good circulation of air around the base of the plant.

Spiking: Continue spiking when the conditions are right (this should only be carried out if the soil is suitably moist) to augment your deep spiking carried out to alleviate built up compaction. Keep your spiking regime flexible, alternating between surface spiking, deep spiking and slitting. A very good regime would be to:

Deep spike monthly (vertidrain or Wiedenmann)
Medium spike every other week (turf slitter such as Sisis maxislit)
Surface spike weekly (Sisis quadraplay)

Of course, your ground may be very hard at the moment, so you may wish to wait for suitable moisture in the ground before commencing a spiking programme. Start with surface spiking and work up to deep spiking. Choose a thin tine for your vertidrain as this may get into the ground enough to open it up for taking a thicker tine later.