Everton Reaction: Pathetic Pitch

Last updated : 21 January 2008 By Paul Farrington
An own goal from Phil Jagielka was not enough for the Latics who had the better of the general play.

Steve Bruce

"I felt sorry for both sets of players having to play on that. Both goalkeepers are very capable kickers but the ball was like a bouncing bomb when it was played back to them.

"I know we have had some unbelievable weather recently and it doesn't seem to have stopped raining since I came back to the North West, but the pitch is a concern.

"I have a lot of good footballers here and that pitch is giving us grave concerns. How we address it I don't know - I'm not the best person to be asked about digging up pitches after what happened last year at Birmingham.

"I'm no groundsman and I'm not making excuses, but the pitch is poor. If you are a Premier League team, you need a decent pitch and that could certainly affect us.

"We looked the better team for 40 minutes but one mistake has cost us badly. And I think it was still affecting us at the corner which led to Everton's second goal, we hadn't recovered by then.

"If you make mistakes in the Premier League, or any league, you get punished, but particularly in the Premier League where players don't miss. Unfortunately for Titus, he has made a horrible mistake which has cost us badly.

"I have to say he has been terrific since I came here, even though he got my career at Wigan off to a bad start against Manchester City. The boy really has all the attributes to a really top footballer but one thing he has to work on is his concentration level.

"When you play at the back, you get judged with the great ones and the good ones - and they don't make mistakes often. We will keep working with him, trying to iron out those mistakes. Defenders usually get better with age and experience - let's hope Titus does."