McLeish hails Pars' grass return

McLeish does not rule out plastic pitches in the future

Rangers manager Alex McLeish has hailed Dunfermline's decision to replace their artificial pitch with grass as "great news for all footballers".

"It is a bit of a turn-off for players and coaches alike," said McLeish.

"Maybe in the future you can't rule them out because of the advances in technology. But there is still scepticism about them.

"At the moment, I still feel that plastic pitches are a taboo as far as footballers are concerned."

Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston has described opponents of artificial surfaces as "dinosaurs".

But Rangers winger Chris Burke echoed his manager's sentiments.

These surfaces are the way forward in the long term Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston

"Grass pitches are the way forward," he said. "We don't want any of that synthetic stuff.

"They are not the best to play on and most clubs will be happy with that.

"I wouldn't say it's more dangerous, but you were even more sore than normal after playing on that, so grass is best."

Dunfermline were forced to turn back to grass after the Scottish Premier League board twice voted to outlaw the artificial surface.

Yorkston said: "It was a very tough decision to take, but we had very little option.

"The SPL delayed it so we were running out of time. We had to do something quickly - it's as simple as that.

"We are reluctantly going ahead with the plans to put grass down for next season. But the SPL are to blame for all this.

"These surfaces are the way forward in the long term. But, obviously, we are dealing with dinosaurs here."