Alan Cawley on Oriel Park Pitch

[GCdfc]

Not a fan of the gimmicks on MNS/Soccer Republic but Free Kick Kings did show the unpredictable bounce of the Dalymount pitch.

The Dalymount pitch should get it's own thread now!

[mcgonigle]

Put up what?

Stats to show it's an advantage to Dundalk I presume.

A poster (and author of 'C'Mon the Town') put up a post over on orielweb analyzing all home games since our return to the premier division claiming that the pitch is of less advantage to Dundalk than most clubs home pitch is to them.

The fact is that some people will never like the pitch no matter how many tests it passes or how many stats are produced. Some people simply don't like the look of it! Say it looks terrible on telly, in my opinion that has to do with the camera angle and floodlights, look at the below pic taken on Sunday:

BmyuicZIUAAAiz2.jpg

Looks ok to me, but again this is just opinion. There are many Dundalk fans who don't like the pitch and would like to see a return to grass. I think the thing that annoys most Dundalk fans is the amount of publicity the pitch gets when there are many poor grass pitches around the league.

Anyway this same discussion will be repeated until the day comes when the pitch is replaced. God forbid we actually won the league with this pitch, people would be calling for an asterisk beside our name in the history books!

[Mr A]

Oh FFS. I didn't realise it has a slope as well. That pitch is worse than Hitler.

[Ezeikial]

Oh FFS. I didn't realise it has a slope as well. That pitch is worse than Hitler.

It is a mechanically controlled tilt - the half time watering in one half only is to camoflage that the slope is switched at half time

[Eminence Grise]

Oh FFS. I didn't realise it has a slope as well.

That you, Jeremy?

[Overthemoon]

It is a mechanically controlled tilt - the half time watering in one half only is to camoflage that the slope is switched at half time

Fantastic post

[Nesta99]

That you, Jeremy?

Easy now Sing Li food van is nowhere near the pitch!

[seand]

Lies, damn lies and statistics, as they say, but here are some stats courtesy of Dundalk historian Jim Murphy.



To any body who gets bored by football statistics and to those who are fed up reading about the PITCH, you can all look away.
For everybody else this is my attempt to identify what kind of advantage, if any, does the PITCH provide to Dundalk.

El-pietro [Cork] a recent contributor to oriel web made a very reasoned case about the pitch and its potential advantages to Dundalk as follows:

“I'm just saying... the pitch does have a factor in every game you play there, of course it does, to say otherwise is foolish. You play 16-17 games a season there, plus every training session, every other club plays 1 or 2 games there.

He makes a valid point that …. “maybe if you played on a grass pitch you’d earn a point or two less a season, or 10, or 6, or 30. It’s impossible to know because we don’t have a control to compare you to.”

I’ve examined all Premier League match results over the five seasons since 2009, our first season back in the Premier Division, and this period covers 903 League games.
The first thing to establish is the extent of the ‘home bonus’ during this period. In other words how many more points can a team expect from home games over away games.

The Facts? During these 5 seasons the total number of points won by home teams was 1318, while away teams gathered 1168… meaning that home advantage was worth a grand total of 150 points [1318 less 1168], the equivalent of 30 points per season and worth just under 3 points per team on average.

The annual averages were reasonably consistent, suggesting that the data is fairly robust, as follows:
2009 (average 3.3), 2010 (3.3), 2011 (2.1), 2012 (2.5) and 2013 (3).
And Dundalk? During this same 5 season period we had a home-over-away excess of just 8 points—under 2 per season.
So Dundalk’s home performance at under 2 points on average better than their away average was slightly worse that the League average of 3. In these circumstances the 5-year playing record shows that no home game advantage by Dundalk can be ascertained.

Of course while these are averages, there is considerable variation between the different teams.
So which teams have clocked up the best home results excess over away?
Sligo (+40 points), Shamrock Rovers (+26), UCD (+25), St Pats (+23) and Cork City (+21 from only 3 seasons)—against Dundalk’s 8 !!!.
And the worst? Derry who managed a total of 8 points better away from home, followed by Bray with a -5 score.

So what is about the Sligo Showgrounds that conferred a 40-point home-match benefit in these 5 seasons (8 per season), or what about Cork’s 7 per season home-ground bonus?
Have they a case to answer? What are they feeding the grass in Sligo? Has the Showgrounds ever been drugs tested?
These statistics, of course, will not convince those who ‘don’t like the pitch’ or who saw it once on television and ‘didn’t like the colouring’ or the expert (!!) who says it is the ‘worst pitch in the world’.

[Mr_Parker]

God forbid we actually won the league with this pitch, people would be calling for an asterisk beside our name in the history books!

Shush you. You'll have people from the Irish League demanding that for us winning the league twice in a row.

[Dodge]

Stats to show it's an advantage to Dundalk I presume.

Ive never once claimed it was an advantage for dundalk. Pats defeat last June there was their first since Dundalk got promoted so I don't think I could be accused of sour grapes either. I'm not against astro pitches either. Cliftonville's is fine for example

Dundalk's is awful though. Glad it passed all the tests etc. it's still awful

[oriel]

As my signature would indicate I would prefer if we played on grass, but thats just a personal opinion. However, there is no way the surface is near as bad as some people are making out. It has contributed to some brilliant games so far this season and the players (sometimes on both sides) appear to be playing as good as they would on a really short cut and fine grass surface.

[mcgonigle]

Ive never once claimed it was an advantage for dundalk. Pats defeat last June there was their first since Dundalk got promoted so I don't think I could be accused of sour grapes either. I'm not against astro pitches either. Cliftonville's is fine for example

Dundalk's is awful though. Glad it passed all the tests etc. it's still awful

I never said you did, I was just answering your original question