ACCRINGTON Stanley will spend the next two weeks attempting to rescue their new Crown Ground pitch after Aldershot slammed the playing surface as ‘dreadful’ and ‘inadequate’ following Saturday’s season opener.

Stanley spent £70,000 to level and improve the pitch during the summer after a string of postponements during the last two seasons.

But the club had to call off a pre-season friendly with Burnley because the work was behind schedule and an attempt to reverse their fixture with Aldershot was blocked by the Football League, despite both clubs’ agreement.

Both sides found passing football difficult as the pitch cut up badly in Saturday’s 0-0 draw, most notably in one corner.

One visiting player described the surface as ‘a bog’ and the worst he had ever played on, sparking early fears of postponements in winter if the pitch deteriorates with more games.

“That cost £70,000?” said Aldershot manager Kevin Dillon.

“I’m just thankful we have no injuries. It looked to me as though one of their lads (Rory Boulding) twisted his ankle quite badly at the end and that was definitely the pitch.

“The ball got stuck under your feet and it wasn’t bouncing.

“It was dreadful. They’ve had four months to get the pitch right and it’s inadequate.”

Stanley’s next home game is against Macclesfield on August 21 and managing director Dave O’Neill said: “We’ve got the pitch contractor coming back now for the next fortnight to have a real good work on it.

“We’re a little bit disappointed with it. We’ve spent a lot of money and we expected it to be a little bit better.

“There were an accumulation of things that probably put us back by a fortnight. Weather was one thing.

“When we did get it seeded it was the driest spell it could possibly have been and once the grass started growing it’s just been flooded.

"For the last five or six weeks we’ve had nothing but rain.

“We did try to postpone the game last Friday but the Football League said it was our home fixture and it would give us an advantage later on if we had three home games in a row.

“But the contractors are confident they can pull it around.

“I’m told the drains take three months to get working and they’ve only had two.”

Stanley boss John Coleman added: “The pitch hampered us with the way it softened up.

“But I think it will be all right. I think in a couple of weeks you’ll see a different pitch.”