What was your coldest United match that you have been to

[sportinguista]

Oxford away in about 1996, lost 4-1, away end was open and i'd forgot my jacket, it was bloody cold.

That game was miserable in every aspect.

 

[BLADEOR]

Mansfield Town away late 80s. Driving sleet/ snow in an open away end. Think we won 1-0? (Duffield pen?) Think it took a week to chisel the ice off me

This gets mine, my cousin, and my nephews vote. The walk back to the car was like a scene from the Everest film ffs

 

[Northyorksblade]

Derby away 2004, without any doubts for me.

Is that when the car park was like a skating rink?

 

[vorpal blade]

Always cold ...... Boothferry Park
seemed cold ..... Roker Park

absolute zero .... Belle Vue, Doncaster ..... Rovers v. someone like Northampton Town in the mid to early 1970s ..... the crowd sorted itself into two parallel lines all around the terraces (I know parallel lines are always and only straight btw). It was the lowest crowd ever in Doncaster, something like 891.

 

[Jon Bon II]

Ur all pussys Sunday mornings on the old fucking pitches we used to have turn up on in the 70,s

It was definitely MUCH colder in the 70's before they invented greenhouse gasses....

 

[Bladethebrian]

Orient away in a January cup replay when Walker made his debut. Car completely covered in ice afterwards. One down and won 4-1 and being there despite losing three fingers and four toes to frostbite was immense.

 

[Bladepicker]

I think it was crewe at the lane?Bobby Ford era.Friday night methinks on sky,Pissing it down with snow, touch and go wether it was going ahead,sat warm and cosy in the Birley hoping it was called off when the old man pulled up for my lift.
The conditions where awful.we used to sit on the front row of the family enclosure then when my mam was a regular .
It was fucking bleak.
Think it ended nil nil aswell.

It wasn't a Bobby Ford era game - twas in our promotion season under Warnock and is the coldest I have been at the lane. It was 0 0 - We should have had a pen for a clear foul on Aki biyi but because he tried to stay on his feet the ref didnt give it.

We got all the way to the ground at the original fixture not knowing the downpour had called it off. I’ll always remember the January game for the wrong reasons. The roads and paths were treacherous and our good mood after the game disintegrated when an old Derby fan in his 70s/80s slipped and hit the path face first. The sickest I’ve ever felt after a victory

We had several cold Derby away games as Pride Park is high up outside is windy as fuck but THE cold un Rodders refers to ended in a 2 nowt defeat. We were awful, paddy fucked up.to.allow Izale McCloud to score their second and I know Derby fans who remember that game because of how cold it was. Coldest by far.

 

[Bert]

Always cold ...... Boothferry Park
seemed cold ..... Roker Park

absolute zero .... Belle Vue, Doncaster ..... Rovers v. someone like Northampton Town in the mid to early 1970s ..... the crowd sorted itself into two parallel lines all around the terraces (I know parallel lines are always and only straight btw). It was the lowest crowd ever in Doncaster, something like 891.

Always extremely cold : Blundell Park

 

[Robby Blade]

Is that when the car park was like a skating rink?

Everywhere was a skating rink that evening. I was slipping and sliding down to Chesterfield station and came across Kevin Gage holding onto a wall. Getting back to Derby station was even worse. People falling all over the place.

 

[vorpal blade]

There is a theme which is North Sea related isn't there.

Just another one, Baseball Ground away, I'm thinking early 1990s ? I'm going by the theory, "it''s too cold to snow", I reckon the really cold days are dry


AND I've just remembered, QPR at Loftus Road, a night match (early 2000s?) .... Crouch was 19 and played his first game against us ..... perishing.

 

[penthouseblade]

February 2002, Huddersfield Town v Plymouth Argyle.

Living in Manchester at the time, a mate of mine was an Argyle fan so we got the train over, sank several Stella's and looked forward to the match. Arriving in Udders, we were unprepared really for how bitterly bitterly cold it was, with a breeze giving it an extra chill factor. Ice covered paths greeted our little pub crawl (to empty pubs) and his burger and chips sliding down the street after he'd slipped over for the third time in an hour or so, funny watching him fail but teeth chattering cold.....
I remember walking up and down the away end to trying to keep warm watching one of the worst games of football I've ever seen; no doubt due to the conditions plus two shit teams, it was hard work to say the least! Made it to the half time queue for the bar (one chap so pissed he knew he was watching Argyle but not where.....). Only problem was it was so cold I could only finish half the pint of Smooth and had to leave it! Absolutely fucking freezing, ashamed about leaving the pint but it was extreme.......still stayed till the end of the game though!
UTB

 

[vorpal blade]

I seem to remember Keith Edwards wearing adidas® Kicks at the Lane on a frozen pitch? or someone wearing something odd, like Nike® Challenge Court or Waffle or something else even more outré.

The North Pole v South Pole derby was a bit chilly.

come on, that's technically not a local derby is it?

 

[torridon]

AND I've just remembered, QPR at Loftus Road, a night match (early 2000s?) .... Crouch was 19 and played his first game against us ..... perishing.

Is that the game when every time Crouch touched the ball all us Blades shouted "freeeeeaaak"

 

[spongebobblade]

It wasn't a Bobby Ford era game - twas in our promotion season under Warnock and is the coldest I have been at the lane. It was 0 0 - We should have had a pen for a clear foul on Aki biyi but because he tried to stay on his feet the ref didnt give it.



We had several cold Derby away games as Pride Park is high up outside is windy as fuck but THE cold un Rodders refers to ended in a 2 nowt defeat. We were awful, paddy fucked up.to.allow Izale McCloud to score their second and I know Derby fans who remember that game because of how cold it was. Coldest by far.

Spot on. I think I’m confusing it with the 05/06 promotion season when Akinbyi scores the only goal?

 

[BushBlade]

There is a theme which is North Sea related isn't there.

Just another one, Baseball Ground away, I'm thinking early 1990s ? I'm going by the theory, "it''s too cold to snow", I reckon the really cold days are dry


AND I've just remembered, QPR at Loftus Road, a night match (early 2000s?) .... Crouch was 19 and played his first game against us ..... perishing.

One of the coldest nights I can remember in London and I've lived there for fifteen years now.

 

[Bladepicker]

Spot on. I think I’m confusing it with the 05/06 promotion season when Akinbyi scores the only goal?

There was that or the season after the 2 nowt, we won one nil with a lovely goal by Alan Quinn - that was bloody cold too!

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Ur all pussys Sunday mornings on the old fucking pitches we used to have turn up on in the 70,s

A liberal smearing of the chemist’s “Chilli-paste” on the old legs helped....just had to be careful around the floppy bits area..

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Derby away Jan 2004 - worse conditions than the original postponed game.

This gets a vote from me. I went on the train to the original tie only for it to be called off at 2pm from the rain. The replay - well. 2pm it rained. Then it snowed. Then more rain washed all the grit away. All that rain then froze. Then temp dropped to below freezing. It was -2 through that game. We lost (2-0 I think) and I’ve never been colder.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

I was there too.. one side of me was white with snow. Even the car was shivering on the way home. Was that the game Brian Smith broke his leg, or am I thinking of another game v MTFC??

Smith leg break at home to Preston in a 3 1 win at the Lane.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

It was Simon Webster that broke his leg at Mansfield, but in the cup game earlier in the season. Ironically that’s why we bought Booker, whose reputation changed in the league game at Mansfield.

Brian Smith broke his leg in a home game. I think it was against Preston. Stancliffe later scored one of the phenomenal own goals I’ve ever seen.

The header from Stancliffe was a cracker.

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

Doesn’t anyone remember Watford away in the cup? I think it was the 5 - 0 defeat game and it was absolutely freezing cold. We were standing behind the goal with a wind blowing straight at us bringing the temperature down even more. I spent most of the game stamping my feet or jumping up and down on the spot to keep the blood from freezing.
An utterly miserable day.

 

[SirNibletsO'Korne]

I'll go Derby 2004 too.Can't recall many games where as I tried to move my feet,I found them momentarily iced to the concrete.
There's probably been others but that sticks out as a day to forget all round...

 

[Paisley Blade]

Wasn't that the one where some Blade was pouring hot water in his trainers at HT?

Yes it was , I saw him do it. As an exercise in short termism I think it remains unmatched.

 

[shorehamview]

Mansfield Town away late 80s. Driving sleet/ snow in an open away end. Think we won 1-0? (Duffield pen?) Think it took a week to chisel the ice off me

It was fucking freezing, with only a chain link fence to shelter from the driving sleet. Took a week to dry out my new leather jacket. Stoke in December is like going to Fiji in summer in comparison, although it is indeed a windswept soulless shithole.

 

[Silent Blade]

My coldest experience was Derby in January 2004, I wore three jumpers, two pairs of trousers and three pairs of socks that night! Many slipped and fell on the icy route from the rail station to the ground and back.

Of the 1932-33 season, this is what Denis Clareborough wrote about our match at Blackburn.

The most remarkable game took place at Ewood Park in October. The game was played in pouring rain driven along by a bitterly cold wind, United lost the toss and lost the match. What little football there was took place in the first half when the spectators who were huddled together at the back of the back of the stands watched the Rovers take a three goal lead. Pools of water began to form all over the pitch and normal play descended into farce, and the players could barely move the heavy leather ball. The half time interval was extended to allow the players to recover from the conditions, but Bruton, the Blackburn outside right, was unable to continue and the game re-started without him. A huge sheet of water just beyond the United penalty area now acted as a barrier to progress to both teams, and the players in any case were beyond caring. After fifteen minutes, Bruton returned to the field, but Tommy McLean, a tough Scot, gave up and walked away, soon to be followed by Cunliffe of the Rovers, and Carrigan of United.

The referee, Mr A J Caseley, stopped the game to consult with the linesmen, but only seven Blackburn players and their trainer remained on the field to hear his decision that play would be suspended for ten minutes, There remained nineteen minutes to play. The United directors told the referee, when the ten minutes had elapsed, that only seven of their players, now clad in borrowed maroon jerseys, were fit to resume to play, but the Rovers, no doubt keen to record their first home win of the season, reported a full eleven. Mr Caseley decided to wait a little longer, and United, realising that he was determined to complete the game, confirmed that seven would turn out.

" Get them out", said the referee, and went to the official's dressing room, but there he collapsed and the overworked Blackburn club doctor was called to him. Eventually, after a delay of twenty five minutes, and with the senior linesman in charge, and with an eighth United player present, the game concluded in gathering darkness. It had been a memorable day. A reserve match at Burnley, just a few miles away was abandoned and at storm tossed Blackpool, Chelsea, the visitors, finished with six men. Carrigan of United never really recovered from the experience, and only played once more for the first team, while Harry Gooney, after a wretched performance the following week was sent away by United for a month's rehabilitation on a Cotswolds farm. He went to stay with his aunt.

 

[S20Eddie]

Port Vale away, mid week 89 I think, 3-3 draw, the terrace was just one sheet of ice. Health & Safety Executive would gone mental if it had existed back then.

 

[Aston max]

A liberal smearing of the chemist’s “Chilli-paste” on the old legs helped....just had to be careful around the floppy bits area..

Aah memories, the Sunday morning Morris dance next to the hedge after handling ones crown jewels having a piss forgetting about the deep heat still on your hands

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

One of the few facts about football that Mrs HBT knows is that the coldest ever football match was Newcastle v Utd in February 1968. She knows this because it was in our student days in the north-east, and as part of my attempt to woo her, I took her to celebrate Hodgy's 500th Blades appearance. Despite the cheery acknowledgement from Hodgy as he came into the penalty area at the Gallowgate End, the soon -to-be Mrs HBT was singularly unimpressed by the whole experience, principally because the terracing was covered in compacted snow which, as the winter sun faded, increasingly glued our frozen feet to the ground if we didn't keep jumping up and down. Nothing happening on the pitch encouraged any jumping up and down. A Wyn Davies headed winner did nothing to improve my mood, as it helped propel us towards relegation, although I did not understand at the time that this was to be the beginning of the 13 year curse. I am pleased to report, however, that Mrs HBT's second experience of a football match was much happier - it was at the Lane in 2014 to see our grandson be a mascot.

 

[ourbob]

Plymouth away,about 8 years ago,got taxi from hotel to pub,then pub to ground,only a polo shirt on,then it hit me at 15.05 how bleedin cold it was that day.

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Southampton away in the season we went up to the Prem. Shipps put in a right shift that night, I'm pretty certain we could see ice forming on the advertising boards.

I hitched back to London after that one; got in at 4am. It were fooking cold, that's for certain.