City Ground pitch manager on his World Cup adventure

Chris Wood, Dan Ndoye and Ibrahim Sangare were among the Nottingham Forest players representing their countries at the World Cup.

But before they arrived in North America, another City Ground employee was already preparing the groundwork - pitch performance manager Ethan Reed.

Reed received his own World Cup call-up as he was asked to take his City Ground expertise to the Reliant Stadium in Houston, one of 16 tournament venues.

The 32-year-old helped prepare the playing surface for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Vinícius Júnior and Virgil van Dijk. Now, he wants to bring that experience home, applying what he learned to further enhance the pitch at the City Ground.

Reed wasted little time before beginning his World Cup assignment.

The day after Nottingham Forest's 2025-26 season ended with a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth, he boarded a 10-hour flight to Houston.

"I landed in Houston and went straight to bed, it felt like 3am to me so I had no time to meet up with the others.

"I was up at 6am local time because the turf was getting delivered at 7am. I was there for the first roll of turf, and from then on it was 15‑hour days for pretty much the first week.

"We had such a tight turnaround, so we had to put in the hours to make sure the pitch bedded together, the levels were right, and the nutrition and aftercare were all spot on.

"It was intense, I was averaging 73‑hour weeks," he said.

Reed's call‑up came through a contact at Raw Stadia, a pitch‑performance company that uses analysis and data to keep surfaces at their peak and enhance player performance.

"I got a call back in October saying they were working on getting contracts for the World Cup as part of their case study.

"They needed to put forward that they had a Premier League groundsman to help out, and they asked me. It was a no‑brainer. I said yes."

Houston hosted seven World Cup matches, including Morocco's 3-0 win over co-hosts Canada in the last 16.

Reed said many factors had to be considered, as well as strict targets to maintain a pitch fit for a major tournament.

"It's not just mowing lawns," he added.

"There's a performance aspect to the turf. If I start talking about nitrogen and fungicides, people switch off. But if I explain how we help players like Anthony Elanga hit his top sprint rating, which helped him score the winner against Manchester United, that's when people get more engaged."

Now back in Nottingham and preparing the City Ground for another Premier League season, Reed said there are elements of the work he saw in Houston that he'd like to see adopted in English football.

"I'd love to start an internship with overseas staff and bring some of their people over to us, especially with how big football is going to be in America after the World Cup."

He also praised the collaborative approach in Houston.

"There were loads of different teams that came together, the University of Houston, the Texans, the Houston Dynamo staff. They all helped.

"It was really special to see the whole city come together to deliver exceptional match days with high standards."

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