Crawley Town head groundsman made redundant

The last home game at the Broadfield was the FA Cup loss to Bristol Rovers on January 8

Tom Martin will continue in his role as assistant groundsman and work on the pitch will also be carried out by external contractors and Crawley Borough Council, who own the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

Extensive work has been done on the troubled pitch over the last ten days and the club is hopeful of getting this Saturday’s League One game against Peterborough United on.

If it does go ahead it will be Reds’ first home game since the 2-1 defeat to Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup on January 8.

“The position of head groundsman has been made redundant and Matt has left our employment,” Mr Dunford confirmed. “The reasons are nothing to do anyone else, they will stay confidential and are between us and the employee.”

Also confirming that the club was not looking to appoint a new head groundsman, Mr Dunford added: “Not in the foreseeable future.”

Following last Tuesday’s late postponement against Tranmere, extensive work has been carried out on the pitch, including the use of an ‘earthquake’ machine to alleviate soil compaction in bad areas, while the surface has also been verti-drained.

As a result the rain from the last few days has been able to reach the drains, the club said.

With further rain forecast on both Friday and Saturday the covers have gone back on the pitch and are expected to be removed on the morning of the match.

Mr Dunford said a precautionary pitch inspection would take place on Friday and added: “If the game was being played today we would be definitely on.

“I am loathe to make predictions given my track record, but I must stress that the work that has been done on the pitch makes doubly confident that it will be all systems go for Saturday.”