DID you see the Bolton v Blackburn FA cup tie this weekend?

The game was eventful enough, but the most striking thing was the state of the pitch -- which one friend described to me as looking like 'mud with white lines drawn on it'.

And it isn't the only mudbath masquerading as a football pitch. I can honestly say I've never seen so many poor surfaces in my life as I have this season.

Unless Bolton are so poor now that they have to allow a local farmer to graze his cows, there is no real excuse for letting a stadium that is barely three years old become Lancashire's answer to the everglade swamps.

It's not like I've never seen a dodgy pitch before -- after all, fear of mud is one of the things that persuaded clubs like Preston North End to install those knee-burning magic carpets which became inexplicably popular in the 1980s. But it's been many years since the game of football was reduced to the sort of water polo hybrid we see today.

this makes it all the more amazing that Christie Park has kept it's natural lush green look despite the pressure of so many games since Blackburn Rovers reserves moved in.

It certainly impressed George Burley, and it has allowed the Shrimps to carry on playing football.

If only they could bottle it and sell it on.....

Meanwhile, across the river, Lancaster City are also playing football of scintillating quality.

The top of the table still looks a long way away, but if the Dolly Blues continue to play the penetrating attacking football they've been coming up with in recent weeks, that mountain could soon become a molehill.

And if that proves too much, they can still have high hopes of overcoming Leigh in their Lancashire Cup quarter final and set up the tie we're all waiting for against Shrimps at Christie Park