West Lothian football park gets same surface as Barcelona pitch

dailyrecord.co.uk:

One of Scotland’s oldest football grounds has been given the same playing surface as one of the most iconic football teams in the world.Teams from across all age groups and leagues are queuing up to play on the new surface at Armadale’s Volunteer Park, after work was completed on laying a new 3G synthetic sports pitch in October last year with funding from West Lothian Council.The pitch upgrade has given the park the same playing surface the stars of Spain’s Barcelona FC play on.Bill Baird, Club president of Armadale Thistle described the success of the first part of the work at one of the country’s most historic football grounds.Volunteer Park, known locally as The Volley was founded in 1881.

It has been home to Armadale Thistle since 1935.Mr Baird told a meeting of Armadale and Blackridge Local Area Committee that there had been reservations about installing a synthetic pitch at the historic park but a total refurbishment of the existing pitch was badly needed.The new Fifa-approved pitch was installed last summer by a firm called All Sports.

The park was handed back to Armadale Thistle in October last year and the ground came into use seven days a week as a football centre, as opposed to just getting used two or three times a month to host Armadale Thistle home matches and the occasional charity marches.Mr Baird told the meeting: “History was made on the 5 October when Armadale Thistle defeated Edinburgh College 6-3 in an East of Scotland football league match in front of 355 spectators.”On average 300 plus participants train and coach each week at The Volley and six competitive matches are now played each weekend from under 10s right up to the semi-professional Armadale Thistle senior team.The new Fifa approved pitch