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Steven Crawford

Irish Football Association respond to David Healy's Windsor Park pitch concerns

The Irish Football Association has responded to criticism from Linfield manager David Healy about the current state of the pitch at Windsor Park.

Healy was scathing in his assessment of the playing surface following the Blues' 0-0 draw with Crusaders on Saturday evening and called for improvements to be made.

When asked for a response to the comments from Healy a spokesperson for the IFA said: "We have noted David Healy’s comments."

Read next: No panic from Larne just yet despite worrying analysis from Tiernan Lynch

The association is responsible for maintaining the pitch at the National Stadium, and former Northern Ireland international Healy insisted the pitch should be maintained to the "same standard" for both internationals and Irish League games.

"There have been no international games in October and November and maybe some people have taken their eye off the ball when it should have been maintained to a standard that it should have been for an international game for an Irish League game," Healy told BBC Sport NI.

"You certainly want it in a better state than it was today.

"You want two teams going at it and playing good football. I thought it was poor the other night against Larne but again you can't sometime blame the pitch for a lack of quality from both sides in the final third.

"Certainly the pitch didn't help. I thought the standard of the pitch was poor but again if the pitch could talk, the pitch would probably say that the standard and quality of the two teams today was probably also poor.

"We play Carrick at home next Saturday and then we're off it for a couple of weeks so hopefully some kind of improvement can be made."

Healy's mood wasn't improved after losing midfielder Stephen Fallon to injury in the meeting with the Crues.

"I'm not a medical expert and would never proclaim to be but Stevie went down today and I think he basically slid on the surface and jarred his knee," added the Linfield boss.

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