Maybe Reg can help with this, is that pitch a result of us whacking on tonnes of sand to get a game on that season because of frost? my dad was telling me about a game vs QPR which they tried to get abandoned because it was compacted before the game and their boots wouldn't take. Our guys had been prepped and wore basketball boots, or something like that. The good old days eh!
Swindon vs. Arsenal, F.A. Cup Tie, 1970, Record Attendance 34,000
A national newspaper described the pitch as "sewage".
Incidentally, the conditions didn't bother Alan ball, who may have been making his debut for Arsenal.
They dumped a lot of sand on that pitch in the seventies. The pitch used to be longer and wider.
The pitch in the 70's had a lot of drainage problems and in the 74/75 season they had to dig up
the pitch and replace a lot in the autumn.It was in the shape of a large diamond and took up
almost the entire centre between the two penalty areas.Unfortunately,the turf didn't compact
and wasn't laid very well.In no time at all it turned to mud and sand was added on top.
This problem lasted until the summer of 77 hence the video of the Everton cuptie.During this
period our strikers - Eastoe,Anderson,Moss and Syrett managed pretty well,but it must have
been energy sapping to a lot of players.
I was lucky enough to be almost exactly in line with Kenny Stroud when he scored and it's one
of the best i've seen.Stroudy won quite a few awards that season for his goal.A few months
earlier he scored a screamer with a volley, from the left hand corner of the box against Brighton.
We went 4 - 0 up against Brighton that day,who were the league leaders and the ref abandoned
it with 20 mins to go.They couldn't believe their luck,but fortune smiled on us in the rearranged
match near the end of the season,when we beat them and deprived them of the championship.