Ferguson Groundsman of the Year

Last updated : 12 April 2006 By Russell Claydon
The Portman Road surface came top in the judging panels opinion, with Carrow Road and St. Mary's from Norwich and Southampton, in joint second.

Ipswich's groundsman Alan Feguson is an old hand at picking up the award, with this being his third consecutive season he has finished top of the pile.

However, the Scotsman hasn't been happy with the Portman Road pitch this season, with weather conditions making it difficult to maintain, he said: "To be fair, it's probably the poorest quality pitch that we have won the award with.

"The judging panel said that the very low temperatures we have had in this country through the winter have caused problems up and down the country and they actually had to build that into their equation when deciding the marks.

"The total mark was broken down into 40 per cent from the referee, 30 per cent from the visiting manager and 30 per cent on the final judging day with the pitch being inspected close up.

"We're obviously delighted to have won the award again, but it won't disguise the fact that we know we have issues to sort out to improve the pitch and we'll continue to look for the best answers to those problems."

Ferguson turned down the chance to be the new groundsman of Wembley stadium in the summer to stay at Portman Road.

He is currently keen to stop the Reserves playing on the main pitch to give it more time to recover between First-team games.