You'd have to be a blind idiot to think the plastic pitch isn't a huge advantage to widnes ,having said that widnes do have a pretty good squad who'd probably do well at home anyway

Did not come over as an advantage last Sunday. Widnes squad did not look particularly good either.

Just out of curiosity, has anybody from here actually been on it? what does it feel like?

Ive played football on an all weather pitch which was like a very fine gravel, with some like green stuff on top, I wouldnt want to do a slide tackle on it though.

It's a lot firmer than it looks, just like astroturf you get at 5 a-side places.

It's quite different from that trust me. I played on that stuff for years and it was like sand paper if you came into contact with it.
I've had a run about on the pitch and a bit of a slide too.. it's obviously a very true surface underneath which is a mixture of fake blades of grass and tiny rubber ball bearing type things... it's completely flat whereas the old grass pitch used to slope ever so slightly.
Teams seem to like to play on the pitch and we've seen teams that like to play fast expansive rugby enjoying themselves on it.
After the initial complaints of burns and grazes there haven't been too many of these and Widnes players have pretty much never worn skins on the pitch.
I did notice that when the pitch was first laid there were quite a few teams, including our own, that seemed to overshoot kicks on the chase as if they didn't run on as quickly or as far but that's less apparent now.
In terms of why is it down? Three reasons really...
Firstly it means that the stadium can be used to generate a bit of revenue as the pitches are hired out in the evening and we also have Liverpool Ladies, Everton Ladies and Widnes FC using the pitch.
Secondly I can remember at least two games going ahead when there were a raft of other cancellations last year in the early rounds..
But thirdly and most importantly it means that the club has a viable training location throughout the Winter pre-season.