Mark Warburton 'bemused' but Alloa defend pitch size change
ByPA Sport
Published 11/02/2016 at 16:43 GMT
Rangers manager Mark Warburton was "bemused" to discover Alloa were allowed to cut the width of their pitch halfway through the season - but the Wasps revealed they took inspiration from one of his predecessors.
Alloa have cut the size of their pitch
Image credit: PA Sport
The Ladbrokes Championship bottom club narrowed their pitch from 69 to 60 metres, the minimum permitted under Scottish Professional Football League rules.
Warburton has joined Falkirk boss Peter Houston in criticising the decision to allow the change, but Alloa chairman Mike Mulraney claimed the idea was partly inspired by Graeme Souness.
Speaking ahead of Rangers' trip to the Indodrill Stadium on Saturday, Warburton said: "I've never heard that you can change a playing dimension mid-season.
"We played there earlier this season, it's a difficult surface but we played well and dealt with it and trained there before.
"But now you find the width has changed significantly. It hasn't changed by a couple of feet, it's changed significantly. I personally find that bemusing.
"To change mid-season I just find bizarre. It's not a problem, we'll go there and deal with it. We have prepared on our artificial surface here, it's not an excuse in any way and we're looking forward to the game.
"But they have changed the pitch quite significantly and, speaking to other managers as well, I'm sure they are equally as bemused as I am.
"It's a huge change and we're surprised it's allowed to happen mid-season.
"Would you change the size of the goals mid-season? Do you have two referees, not one, mid-season?"
But Mulraney soon hit back, revealing that a Souness ploy in 1987 had helped give Alloa the idea.
The then Rangers manager ordered the Ibrox pitch be narrowed on the day of a European Cup tie against Dynamo Kiev to help stifle the Soviet champions' wide players, including Alexei Mikhailichenko. Rangers overturned a first-leg deficit with a 2-0 win.
Mulraney told STV: "We narrowed the pitch because we wanted to. In keeping with sporting integrity, we waited until we had played every team in the league at our ground before reducing its width.
"What contributed to sparking the idea was Rangers successfully adopting this under Graeme Souness in the past."
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