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‘Has to be better’ – Phil Hay allays Leeds United fears in build-up to Everton test

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Phil Hay has delivered his verdict on Leeds United’s new pitch ahead of Everton’s trip to Elland Road tonight.

The Whites have had it rough with the playing surface this season, thanks to heavy rain and a lack of preparation in the off-season.

It led to the point where you could have even argued that Crawley Town’s playing surface in the FA Cup defeat was more up to standard.

Something had to be done to solve the issue and following the defeat to Brighton in January, the club moved quickly to install a new playing surface at the cost of around £300,000.

It came courtesy of Tottenham Hotspur and will serve as a temporary replacement turf, staying with us until the summer where a state-of-the-art drainage system will be installed to bring Leeds up to date with the rest of the Premier League.

Up first on the new surface is Everton, and the club have released this video showing the work put in:

Writing in his pre-match Q&A, The Athletic’s Phil Hay delivered this verdict on the new pitch following the criticism of the old one: “It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?

“I mean, I know it’s the winter so you have to expect poor weather but having rained constantly before and after Christmas, the new surface goes down and the first thing that happens is it’s covered in snow.

“Still, turf beds in very quickly these days and it has to be better than what they’ve replaced.”

A lot of fans seem a bit tentative when it comes to getting their hopes up about the new pitch, which is justified given how quick the turnaround has been.

However, the club wouldn’t have committed that much money to solving the problem if they weren’t assured of the speed it could bed in.

A lot of the build-up for fans will be a clamour to get a closer look at what it looks like now, and I’m intrigued to see the ‘finished’ article too.

It should hopefully allow us to move the ball much quicker and play in a manner we haven;t really been demonstrating at Elland Road recently.

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Leeds United season ticket holder since 2013/14, currently situated in the middle of the FA5 noise. From Pablo Hernandez to 5-1 drubbings, I've seen it all at Elland Road.