Sheffield Wednesday training ground changes underway as Owls enter play-off battle with reduced space
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The Owls will take on their final match of the regular season on Sunday before the play-offs get underway and will have just the one pitch to work on, with end of season renovations already underway at their Middlewood Road training base.
As is standard procedure at such facilities across the country, pitches will be dug up and re-laid after months of use.
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Hide AdSuch is the demand on specialist companies carrying out such work, many clubs choose to get in ahead of their opposition and book the work in early, which not only allows the work to get done but allows pitches to ‘settle-in’ ahead of a return to pre-season training that summer.
Wednesday’s most recent opponents Shrewsbury Town have had to train on their stadium pitch at New Meadow for the last two weeks of the campaign – the effects of which were noticed in areas of the playing surface during the Owls’ 3-0 win there on Saturday.
The Owls will have no such headache, however, with one of the pitches at Middlewood Road remaining laid and focused for use in the coming weeks.
With Wednesday’s junior teams winding down their programme – the club’s under-18 side played their final match of the campaign this week while a stripped-back under-21s squad play their last game of the season at Millwall on Friday – the demand on Middlewood Road will be focused entirely around the needs of the first team.
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Hide AdOn work that has started this week, Wednesday chief Darren Moore told The Star: “We’ll rip up our pitches at the training ground, one of them, but we’re grateful we have another pitch that we can work on.
“We’re very fortunate here in that we’re ripping up one of the pitches so it’s ready for pre-season but can work on one while the others are being dug up.”
Middlewood Road has two grass pitches and also have the benefit of an indoor ‘dome’ facility and a 4G pitch, neither of which are usually used by the senior set-up.