Muscat hopes for quality A-League pitch Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat has urged A-League officials to ensure the re-laid Hunter Stadium pitch is up to A-League standard. After playing away for the opening four rounds, Newcastle finally start their home campaign on Saturday night against the Victory on the new Hunter Stadium turf. However, the pitch's resurfacing looks to have been completed in the nick of time, with reports the final pieces of turf were only laid on Thursday. Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Events NSW gave the tick to the surface in pitch inspections late in the week, with a final refereeing inspection to take place before kickoff, as is usual practice. Muscat said the safety of players should be paramount and responsibility for ensuring that fell to the FFA. I've got confidence in the FFA - they've stated that they will inspect the pitch. My concern is the safety of the players," he said. From my perspective, if they can't sprint and they can't turn because they're scared of injury, then it's not safe to play on. The FFA are competent enough to know what's safe and what's playable and what's not and the groundsman has obviously got a job to do. Muscat doesn't need a long memory to recall the last time his side played on a surface he deemed inappropriate for football - at Adelaide Oval in round two. "I don't think it was kind to football, that (Adelaide Oval) surface," he said. We've still got Jason Geria out from getting injured and out from getting injured on that surface. But the ladder-leading coach said he was "sure the pitch would be fine." We go across there with no issues at all. The Hunter Stadium surface has been re-laid ahead of the Asian Cup. Newcastle host four matches of the January tournament, including a semi-final and the 3rd v 4th playoff.