GRASS AT OT

It's frustrating for us because in the years gone by people say 'oh they're having another pitch relaid'. It's not as simple as that."

"It definitely becomes more difficult in winter. In England we play most of our football in the worst times of the year. It does become more difficult - you have the rain and the problem of frost which means you're running the heating system.

"That means you're drying the surface out, then you've got to try and put some moisture back in on the day of the game to soften it up again so it's a difficult time of year. It's definitely about striking a balance."

Sir Alex Ferguson commented after the recent win over Aston Villa that the players had found the pitch difficult, but acknowledged the winter weather coupled with the number of games does not make the groundstaff's job easy.

Sinclair said: "This is the time of year when we're playing a lot of our football. I'd say January and February are the trickiest months because, as we've seen recently, we tend to get all weathers - snow, frost, rain.

"Up to now the pitch has done really well - we've been happy with the grass cover and everything. Over the last couple of games it's probably dried out a bit on the top, which as I say is due to having heating on to get the game played, which means you're then getting water on to make sure it suits the team. Up to now it's done ok.

"To be honest, the pitch is getting scars and scrapes but compared to times gone by we're not getting any major divoting. I comb the pitch after the game and then we walk it the next day so it's not too bad at the moment."