Gus MacPherson has pledged that the McDiarmid Park playing surface will get the summer attention and investment it needs.
But St Johnstone’s head of football operations pointed out that poor pitches are a widespread issue in the Scottish Premiership this season.
And the Saints one didn’t merit the comments that were made from the Rangers camp, with their manager Michael Beale describing it as “a cow field” a few weeks ago.
“The pitch is what it is,” said MacPherson.
“For a number of years there hasn’t been a maintenance programme.
“The club hasn’t had the time to do it for a variety of reasons – European football and then the play-offs being two.
“Celtic at home was one of my first games here and it was early November.
“Even at that point you could see it kicking out. We knew it was going to be an issue by January.
“We’ve tried to protect it as long as we could.
“There’s nobody to blame.
Whoever declared it as “the worst pitch in the world” obviously hasn’t seen Hampden.
— Ben Lister (@BLister07) January 26, 2023
“The adverse weather has been a big factor.
“What one of the maintenance guys was able to put in front of us was staggering – a couple of games ago he told us it had lost 30% of its grass cover.
“It’s a continuous battle to get it manageable. It needs work done to it, it’s as simple as that.
“Without a doubt, that will happen in the summer.
“We’re already in that process to get our slot.”
Unprofessional
MacPherson added: “This is a small country and virtually everybody is in the same boat. I think there are only two contractors.
“There was a lot of criticism from the Rangers side after the game here.
“Personally, I thought that was very unprofessional.
“I did remark on that the following week when we played them at Ibrox.
“It’s impossible to improve it at this time of the year.
“It’s a basic fact that there is no growth from about November to March. You might see a slight difference after that but it won’t be until the summer that you see a proper improvement.”
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