Tom Ankram of Leyland writes: WHAT is it about us and pitches, eh? First of all, we are the laughing stock of the league with our legendary plastic pitch - I really thought I had seen it all then - (which, I recall, was often more red with blood than green) then we get a proper pitch, which needs replacing so often.

I'm sure this doesn't happen in the Premier League.

Now our beloved board want to dig up the pitch again and replace it because it has worn too quickly.

Well, it is no wonder when you have a rugby team, a reserve team and one man and his dog playing on our pitch.

Our club brought in special people to check the pitch and they prescribed a solution. Then it rains and destroys the plans.

Excuse me, but is it me or is it obvious that it rains in Preston? Surely, the prospect of a few drops of rain should have been taken into consideration in the first place?

I just find the prospect of having a fibre-sand pitch being laid rather amusing. It is like pretend grass. Whatever next? Virtual reality players? Referees who know what they are doing? The PNE board parting with cash to buy players? Then I really will have seen it all.

Citizen sports reporter David Higgerson replies: To be fair to North End, they have taken action to remedy the problem by moving Lynx out of Deepdale and playing more and more reserve games at Bamber Bridge's Irongate ground.

The pitch is now in a much better state than this time last season though something has worked somewhere.

Preston are well-known for their shrewd money decisions, so they won't decide to shell out up to £100,000 for a new pitch unless they are sure it is the way forward.

Premiership-standard pitch, Premiership-standard stadium ... all they need to do now is get promoted to the First so they can begin to push for the Premier League!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.