Paul McGrath column: Aston Villa paying the price for not spending
VILLA will have to contend with CSKA Moscow’s plastic pitch when they head to the Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday night and I have to admit that I’m not a fan of fake surfaces at all.
I played on artificial turf on a few occasions during my career and it was something that I didn’t enjoy.
The plastic pitches that spring to mind were the ones that Luton and QPR had during the 1980s. You used to find yourself slipping all over the place and they certainly didn’t do my aching joints any favours.
There was a lot made of Moscow’s equivalent when England went over to Russia during their Euro qualifiers and no doubt it will be mentioned quite a bit during the build up to Thursday night’s UEFA Cup match.
Let’s hope that it doesn’t cause Villa too many problems when they head over there because there’s still all to play for. It’s great to see Villa back involved in big European nights once again and I don’t want to see them come to an end for another season this week.
And of course let’s hope that artificial surface doesn’t cause any further injury worries for Martin O’Neill because that will be the last thing that the manager needs.
