Vinny Perth believes the artificial surfaces at Dundalk and Derry City's grounds are having a detrimental impact on both clubs.
It comes after Dundalk head coach Stephen O'Donnell aired his concerns about the effect of the pitch at Oriel Park in the wake of their 2-2 home draw on Sunday against Derry City, who also have a synthetic surface of their own at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, O'Donnell had felt the pitch at Dundalk was contributing to injuries and also felt Derry have had similar issues.
"It's gone beyond probably a point of not a great surface to watch football on, it’s actually injuring players. Muscle injuries, there is no give on it," he said.
"I'm speculating but all I know is we get a lorry load of injuries and Derry get a lot of injuries. I'd just be a bit worried about the injury count."
Former Dundalk boss Perth joined the RTÉ Soccer Podcast this week and on reflection after hearing O'Donnell's remarks, recalled a spate of injuries during his time in charge.
"My initial reaction to hearing those comments was we didn't get loads of injuries the last eight or nine years. And then when I thought about it, my first league game at Dundalk, I think it was against Sligo. Robbie Benson broke his leg, Patrick McEleney did his metatarsal and two weeks later Chris Shields did his medial knee ligament," he said.
You can watch the full podcast below:
"They all happened at Oriel Park. John Moutney did his cruciate for Pat's ironically in Oriel Park. So statisically there are a lot of injuries in the ground."
Aside from the potential for injuries and how synthetic pitches need a bounce mat underneath to mitigate issues, Perth said the footballing product for onlookers was not as appealing.
"Oriel during the day is not a good viewing place," he said.
"It is a little bit special when there are 3,000-4,000 (fans there) and the lights are on and it's dark in the surrounding but as a spectacle (on Sunday) afternoon, it wasn't good viewing at all. It took away from the match. The pitch was very bobbly.
"If you can say this, it started bad and it's faded. It's gone really poor and I thought the spectacle was not good viewing and I wasn't watching that looking at two top teams saying 'these are the two going to push (Shamrock) Rovers', because of the surroundings."
In his post-match remarks, O'Donnell had said that Dundalk's owners were cognisant of the need to upgrade the pitch.
However, unlike at Derry where the ground is local council-owned, Dundalk would have to fork out a significant sum which exacerbates the urgency to find extra investment.
On the potential outlay, Perth said: "From the last time we discussed this and I would have been pushing for it with the previous owners but figures were coming back of over €400,000 to put it back into a grass pitch.
"And then people say the council will pay for that up in Derry (but) it's going to take a long time before the Derry county council rip that pitch up and spend £300,000 or £400,000 so it's a long way back for the two clubs. But I think it's affecting both of them and in particular Derry are a better team on grass with the style of play they have and I think it's affecting them."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
