Morecambe (H) | Pitch Condition Update

In the interest of transparency and to allow supporters, both home and away, to make as informed a decision as possible about their travel plans, we are writing to provide an update on the Home Park playing surface ahead of Saturday’s Sky Bet League One tie against Morecambe.

The club’s grounds team have worked tirelessly for the past week to prepare the surface and provide the best possible opportunity for the weekend’s football to go ahead despite persistent freezing temperatures. However, at the time of writing on Friday evening, small sections of the pitch are currently frozen.

Over the past few days, the grounds team have tended to the surface around the clock – including, on one occasion this week, spending the night at the stadium. Covers have been routinely applied, as well as the club’s heating lamps. Additional resource has been acquired to support the cause in the form of heated blowers and other specialist equipment.

It is only those measures that has given us a fighting chance of playing the game. 24 hours ago, the surface had completely thawed out. However, temperatures reaching -4 Celsius overnight into Friday morning have left us with work to do once more.

We are cautiously optimistic that the fixture will go ahead as scheduled, with forecast temperatures overnight on Friday and into the day on Saturday very much in our favour. We will continue to take every possible measure to give the fixture the best chance of being played.

With Morecambe fans making a huge journey down to Devon for this fixture, and a proportion of our loyal home support coming from outside the immediate Plymouth area, we felt it was imperative to provide as much information as possible about the status of the pitch – allowing supporters to make a decision on travel arrangements with an understanding of the conditions.

We advise supporters to delay their travel if possible, and the club will provide an update following an early morning assessment by the grounds team on Saturday.