Charlie Christie – It must have been a pitch to have played at Firhill
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I watched a significant amount of football on the television last weekend starting with the Partick Thistle match against Caley Thistle last Friday evening and ending with the Manchester derby.
The quality of play differed greatly in those games and that is to be expected given the vast difference in resources at both levels.
But I would like to see Manchester City try to play their aesthetically pleasing possession game on the current Firhill surface which is more akin to a farm field than a football pitch.
I watched on Friday as both sets of players toiled badly trying to control and pass the ball on the rolled mud and genuinely felt sorry for those who were attempting to introduce a modicum of good football into proceedings.
Partick midfielder Stuart Bannigan is an experienced and talented player, and he must be exasperated at having to play on that every second weekend.
The match was a even affair with Partick having the better of the first half and ICT coming more into the game after the break.
The loss of a late goal from a set play was another set back in our promotion hopes. But with clear cut chances very difficult to carve out on that pitch it was always likely that a set play may prove crucial.
Whether something official can be done regarding pitch quality by our game’s governing bodies is debatable. But supporters are being short changed if they are to watch matches played on surfaces such as these and the ‘old adage’ that it was good enough for players ‘back in the day’ is simply not credible.
Fast forward to Sunday and the Manchester derby. It was like watching a different sport!
The pitch was like a bowling green and the way in which City passed the ball and retained possession was breath-taking. Even more so given the usual frenetic nature of big city derbies and the fact that City retained 70 per cent of the ball during the ninety minutes was astounding.
Their willingness to be patient, switch the angle of their attacks and constantly be available to accept the ball is quite superb. Allied to this is the fact that they almost always play the pass at the correct weight and angle and you can understand the difficulties in trying to chase them down and win the ball back. They are very reminiscent of that fantastic Barcelona side of 2008-2010 – not surprising given their current manager!
That is not to say that I didn’t expect much more from Manchester United. They have a real fight on their hands to achieve a Champions League spot but they will need to show much more effort and endeavour than Sunday.
