Blackpool's battered pitch described as 'the worst you'll ever see in professional football'

Blackpool players have been training on their battered Bloomfield Road pitch in recent weeks to familiarise themselves with the poor surface, The Gazette can reveal.

The Tangerines welcome in-form Boro tomorrow night with Aitor Karanka’s men having won their last five matches.

Boro could go top of the Championship for the first time since December tomorrow evening, should they win and top two Bournemouth and Derby draw on the South Coast.

With play-off hopefuls Brentford also entertaining Watford at Griffin Park, a win for Karanka’s men could put significant distance between them and the chasing pack.

But it won’t be easy against a Blackpool side that, despite sitting bottom of the league, have won their last two at Bloomfield Road.

Sources in Lancashire have also revealed that Lee Clark’s men have been training on the pitch in recent weeks to get used to the bumpy playing surface, something that both Brighton and Millwall have struggled to play on this year.

Described as “the worst pitch you’ll ever see in professional football” by a source this morning, the Bloomfield Road pitch will inevitably pose a tricky test for Karanka’s men to overcome.

Earlier this month Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston described its condition as a “shambles”, with club captain Alex Baptise labelling it “a joke”.

“It’s a stick which is used to beat us and rightly so,” Oyston told the Blackpool Gazette.

“The pitch is a shambles, we all think that.

“The pitch will be resolved as well as it can possibly be resolved. We will do the best we can to improve it now, until the grass starts to grow again.

Blackpool's manager Lee Clark

“When we get to the summer, we’ll take the top few inches off and have the whole pitch relaid. We already have quotes in for the work to be done.

“I’d like to think we won’t have these sort of problems next year.

“We have to make sure that a good job is done in the summer and that it’s looked after properly next season.”

The promised improvements further down the line will be little help to Boro tomorrow evening, but Karanka has warned his side that he won’t tolerate any excuses about the surface.

“We have another difficult game on Tuesday because everyone thinks it will be easy because Blackpool are at the bottom of the table, but it will be difficult as the pitch is not good,” the Boro boss said.

“I don’t want to say afterwards that we’ve lost points or lost the game because of the pitch because I don’t like excuses, but it will be difficult.”

Meanwhile, Lee Clark is hoping to strengthen his squad before Boro's visit to Bloomfield Road.

The basement boys are being linked with a loan move for Sheffield Wednesday striker Gary Madine.

Asked about the prospect of incomings ahead of the Boro game, Clark told the Blackpool Gazette: "There is potential, yes.

"But we've been saying that for the last few weeks and the deals you think are over the line don't happen for whatever reason.

"We've got irons in the fire and strikers are one area I'm looking to strengthen."