Kent League Archive

Independent historical archive and grassroots grounds resource. Not affiliated with Kent FA, The FA or the Southern Counties East Football League.

Tool · pre-match observations

Inspect and record

Work through the same seven observations as the printed checklist. The tool returns one of three clear outcomes — ready, needs action before use, or stop and escalate — and a printable observation record. Unanswered safety questions return no verdict at all.

Scope: natural-grass pitches at grassroots level, before a match. The outcome is guidance for the person inspecting — the formal decision about play always rests with the match official. The reasoning behind each observation is on the printed pitch inspection checklist.

This tool needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in your browser. The pitch inspection checklist covers the same seven observations and the same escalation rule, and prints as a tick-sheet.

The pitch
Standing water

Judge the playing surface, not the surrounds.

Firmness and traction

Walk goalmouths and the centre channel, not just the wings.

Debris and holes
Goals and nets
Line visibility
Weather judgement

Think about the next two hours, not just this minute.

How it decides

Any single stop-level observation — widespread water, unsafe footing, hazardous debris, unsafe goals or severe weather — produces stop and escalate on its own. Fixable findings produce needs action before use with the specific actions listed. Missing safety observations produce cannot determine; the tool never guesses what you did not look at.

Independent historical archive and grassroots grounds resource. Not affiliated with Kent FA, The FA or the Southern Counties East Football League. Printed from https://www.kentleague.com/tools/pitch-inspection/