Andy Thompson, head groundsman at Sheffield Wednesday FC, has reported excellent results since using Sherriff Amenity’s GoGreen Energy bio-stimulant.
Having started his career in groundsmanship with Doncaster Rovers FC back in 1998, Andy progressed through the ranks and landed the head groundsman’s role at Sheffield Wednesday FC in 2014.
A year later the club had a Desso Grassmaster pitch installed and Andy along with his team work around the clock in order to keep it in excellent condition. This is mainly due to heavy usage and the construction of Hillsborough Stadium.
The Stadium plays host to the first team, Under-18 cup matches and Under-23 league matches and throughout the 2016/17 season an incredible 154.5 hours of pitch usage was recorded. Along with such heavy usage Andy reports that the pitch suffers from shade issues due to the stands being high and constructed with old style structures complete with pitched roofs.
With this in mind, Andy, who has been working with Sherriff Amenity since his days at Doncaster Rovers, wanted a product that would help take some stress out of the grass sward and give the pitch a shine in the lead up to televised games. Upon a recommendation from Sherriff’s Amenity Specialists Joe Kinder and Tom Wood, Andy turned to GoGreen Energy.
GoGreen Energy is a concentrated bio-stimulant, formulated to assist plant health and relieve stress symptoms in a wide variety of amenity turf situations. Containing seaweed, plant sugars, simple carbohydrates and a specially selected full package of trace elements, GoGreen Energy provides optimum results when grass is stressed. The low NPK analysis, complemented by suitable wetting and spreading agents, makes this an ideal component of any turf maintenance programme.
Andy applies 60 litres of GoGreen Energy on a fortnightly basis or when using it the day before a match he applies 40 litres.
“GoGreen Energy has performed incredibly well and has given us a shine on the surface that is aesthetically pleasing - especially for a night time kick-off,” says Andy. “It has taken away some of the stresses the plant gets from a football match, the pitch has played better with a lot less scars forming and the rooting seems to have significantly improved.”
In addition to the great results from GoGreen Energy, Andy was quick to praise the customer service he receives from Sherriff Amenity.
“I meet regularly with my representative Tom Wood when we discuss pitch issues and how to raise the standards of the playing surface. We bounce ideas off each other and try to get the pitch rooting as healthy as possible in a short space of time. Joe Kinder (Sherriff Amenity’s Technical Manager) also comes to visit me twice a year, or more if required, to go through any technical improvements we can implement.
“Products always arrive in a swift manner and I know I can rely on Sherriff to be competitive on price and excellent on service.”
