Wayne's pitching for Molineux perfection

Meet Wayne Lumbard – arguably one of the keys to Wolves' success in the past two seasons.

He leads a six-strong team dedicated to producing top-quality pitches both at Molineux and the Compton Park training ground.

And with Kenny Jackett's preferred playing style being a crisp passing game, the surface needs to be as smooth as possible - and Wayne is only too happy to oblige.

The Molineux turf looked better than ever last year and is now being relaid ahead of the new campaign.

"We're really pleased how the pitch was at Molineux last season," head groundsman Wayne said.

"It's improved a lot over recent years.

"We had the new fibre elastic pitch in 2010, a state-of-the-art pitch.

"We're fortunate enough to be able to do whatever we need and get a pitch that's conducive to how the first team want to play."

Wayne works closely with Jackett and assistant head coach Joe Gallen, especially on a matchday when the pitch may need watering to enable a fast, slick surface.

The height of the cut is another variable, with it likely to be slightly shorter in the summer and then longer in the winter when the pitch starts to thin out slightly.

Wayne said: "I speak to Kenny or Joe every single day regarding the Molineux pitch or training ground pitches, just to ask them where to go, where not to go, where they train, where not to train.

"And on a matchday we need to know how they want the water on the pitches. We do whatever it takes to try and help the team. Kenny is fantastic – he leaves us to what we do best.

"We have a catch-up and he asks how the pitches are going, but the good thing about Kenny and Joe is that they respect the pitches and if we ask them to go in a particular area or not go in a particular area they're fantastic. So they've really helped us out, which is why the pitches, especially at Compton, are better than we've ever had.

"It doesn't matter what league we're in the pitch gets maintained the same

"If that's helped the team then that's a little one per cent of our job done,

"We just try and produce the best pitch we can and hopefully it helps us rather than we away team."

While Molineux remained pristine last year there were notable examples of pitches being more suitable for pigs than footballers.

Bradford's pitch turned brown for their FA Cup run, not that it did them any harm when they beat Sunderland. Neil Warnock partly blamed the Selhurst Park turf for his demise as Crystal Palace manager.

And even Wembley had endured terrible problems since the £750million stadium reopened in 2007 - so chucking money at it doesn't necessarily equate to a perfect turf.

Summer renovations are the key, Wayne says, with long-term preparation meaning that come winter deterioration is kept to a minimum.

"You speak to any groundsman, they've all got their own issues and problems," Wayne said.

"At Wolves we're fortunate to do whatever is needed to start from a blank canvas.

"As groundsmen we all know each other – I ring up Tony at Man United or Lee at Man City and we exchange ideas.

"And when Match Of The Day is on, we're all looking at each other's pitches and commenting on how good or not good they are.

"The geographical side changes things, obviously Manchester gets a lot of rain.

"The biggest problem is the shade and the air and light movement in the stadium.

"People have to adapt for that with lighting rigs, etc.

"It's far more technical now that it used to be.

"Players expect to play on a snooker table 12 months of the year and that's what they deserve."