COLCHESTER United chairman Robbie Cowling insists he won’t listen to conspiracy theories when tackling the club’s pitch woes.

The U’s have been hit by several postponements in the space of a month due to a waterlogged pitch at the JobServe Community Stadium, with the latest their League Two clash with Doncaster Rovers, last Tuesday.

Colchester have had four home games called off this season with their pitch, which sits on heavy clay preventing surface water from draining away quickly, struggling to deal with the exceptional levels of recent rainfall.

The U’s were granted permission by the English Football League to reduce the width and length of the pitch to boost their chances of fulfilling their remaining games at the stadium, this season.

Gazette:
There have been some suggestions that the major Northern Gateway development to the east of the stadium may have contributed to the pitch problems.

However, Mr Cowling, who has promised to fund summer improvement work on the pitch, says the high amount of rainfall has been the biggest issue and they will not know whether or not the drainage is working properly without digging the surface up.

Mr Cowling told BBC Essex: “As I understand it, everyone’s got their theories as to why the pitch might have had a problem.

“Yes, it coincides with work going on next door but I would imagine that for years, water has been coming down into that field and going nowhere and now you would like to think proper drainage has been put on, so it may have been worse if they hadn’t have done the work, I don’t know.

“I’m not really one for these conspiracy theories when I’m watching television and they’re telling me it’s the wettest February on record and we know we’ve got a pitch that doesn’t drain very well.

Gazette: Robbie Cowling
“To me, it’s pretty easy knowing what the problem is – the difficulty has been solving it.”

Colchester face six home games in the space of four weeks as they battle against relegation, leading to some U’s fans voicing their concerns.

The Blue White Army fans group said: "I do sympathise with the club being that the weather has been extremely poor.

"There’s obviously more difficult factors in place when knowing how to let the pitch breathe and when to avoid the pitch gaining more surface water too.

"That being said, the pitch on Saturday looked extremely impressive given some of the photos and the state we had previously seen it in when setting up for a postponement.

"That’s a huge credit to the all the staff and non-staff at the club who’ve pulled together to get Saturday on." 

Colchester season-ticket holder Si Collinson added: “Clearly the draining isn’t good enough and Robbie Cowling has stated that there are plans for the summer to improve it. 

“One thing that is good was to see the club find an outside of the box solution to get games on.”