Town groundsman hoping the rain, rain stays away!

Work is well under way at Kenilworth Road to ensure the playing surface is in superb condition and for that to happen, Bird wants the recent downpours to stay away.

He said: “At this time of year, we don’t want too much rain on it because we’re trying to encourage the roots to go downward and look for moisture, so it strengthens the grass.

“If we get too much rain the roots will just be there lying dormant, they don’t go down the same.

“We like to get it to dry out so it looks really, really dry so that when its absolutely crying out for water, we absolutely drown it and it helps it in the long run.”

Now in his 19th season with the club, Bird has already dug up the pitch and gave an insight into just what sort of work is required in his line of work.

He said: “We stripped the top surface off, rotavated the top three inches over to freshen up the soil and then rolled it back down, levelled it and seeded into it.

“We covered it up with our frost protection sheets, so it was like a little greenhouse as it brings the seeds through quicker.

“We were cutting it 10 days later. You have to force it along because we’ve rotavated the top surface over and get new roots going down again.

“Even though it’s green, you’ve still got to keep the roots going down.”

One thing that Bird does not wish for is a season like last year when Hatters played seven home games between January 15 and February 12, plus hosted an England C international.

He continued: “I’ve checked my diary and in my 18 years here, we have never played eight games whether they be reserve games, first team games, from the middle of January to the middle of February.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that last summer we put in drainage, even though we lost grass cover, we could have quite possibly lost quite a few games to waterlogging.”

The York City match that was abandoned due to snow on December 18 didn’t help prepare the ground for the exhaustive schedule either.

Bird said: “The manager wanted the game on, but the problem was we had below zero temperatures for a couple of weeks where we had frost covers on it.

“We got the game on, but the fact that it snowed on the pitch meant the pitch was then covered up for another couple of weeks.

“That was the start of the problems as grass is like a living plant, it needs to breathe.

“When everything is covered up all the time, it starts to struggle.”

Bird was very impressed with how the pitch recovered in time for the end of the season though, thanks to the money invested by the club the season before.

He said: “Without the drainage, the grass cover would have gone a lot quicker.

“It might not have looked the best after the eighth game, but it did very, very well to get through and because of the drains we put in last year, it actually improved when it came back in the spring.”

Manager Gary Brabin takes a hands on role when it cames to the state of the pitch too as the groundsman said: “I see him most days when he’s in.

“He comes out and has a look to sees how it’s going. We work well together and at the end of the day, it’s team work all round.”

Hatters won’t set foot on their home ground for another month until they welcome Gabala to Kenilworth Road on July 27.

Bird added: “It’s nice to get a couple of decent teams down here for the first games.

“When you start the season, get your white liner going and everything, it’s quite rewarding when you see it.

“It’s nowhere near yet ready to play for another month as we’re taking quite a bit of grass off it every day.

“When you think four weeks ago, there wasn’t a blade of grass on the pitch, it’s come on really well. We couldn’t really be more happy with it, but we still need another month to get the roots down and then it’s all going according to plan.”