Coyle wants to bring the reserves home

The good news is that manager Owen Coyle would like to see the games back at Turf Moor but it is a matter of having to wait until such time as the pitch is better and is able to cope with both first team games and reserve team games. That was the reason for moving in the first place and we can all recall the state of our pitch then around the time of the home cup tie against Liverpool.

That said, the conditions in which our second string are being asked to play at Accrington, on what surely is the worst playing surface in the entire Football League, is not doing us any favours whatsoever. The mud filled trench down the middle of the pitch is hardly the only problem and even last summer it hardly looked up to it for our first team friendly there.

Coyle said: "I want the pitch at Turf Moor to be suitable to the way we want to play at first team level and if that means less games on it then that's the way it's got to be. Ideally you want younger players coming through playing on Turf Moor but if it's going to be detrimental to the pitch then you can't really do it.

"I agree more fans would probably come to the games, and with a pitch conducive to that amount of games I'd be all for that. But we need the pitch ideal for the match days.

"I think kids growing up playing in that environment at Turf Moor would be better for them. And I'm all for fans coming down to see them because you want them to identify with the young players that are coming through. But it's just wait and see on that one."

The plan to get the pitch at the Turf sorted was shelved last summer because of the England 'B' game against Albania. Hopefully that work will be carried out this summer on a pitch that is again looking anything but good. It's still a hell of a lot better than Accrington's though.