“I was pleased to be in the hat for the next round and confident we could finish the job off at home, although it took us two games to do so.” The teams It was a fair result in the end and I wouldn’t have criticised any player in those conditions. “It was important we were ahead at half time as with the snow swirling at our backs I felt we would get at least a replay. “The pitch was rock solid and when there was no give in the ground I thought it shouldn’t have taken place, but the referee said it was okay so we just had to get on with it. I was at the ground very early on the Saturday morning and I agreed that the conditions were just about playable then, but it snowed again later on. He said: “I never liked playing on frozen pitches and given a choice I would have settled for the game being called off. Mick Mills MBE was the club’s player-manager at that time, although he rarely played that season.
(Image: Google) Mick Mills: It shouldn’t have taken place
Make cricket score sheet in word 40 overs full#
When we got inside we realised that they must have said that to quite a few because half of the stand was full of Stoke supporters.īlundell Park, Grimsby Town headquarters, next to the North Sea in Cleethorpes. Home fans only they said, but then said that they would make an exception for us two. “As the snow got heavier I was convinced the game would be off, but we queued at the ticket office for a seat in the main stand. “I remember that on the road from Grimsby to Cleethorpes, which is where the ground is, there was a big temperature gauge on the wall of a newspaper building and it was showing –4C on a Saturday lunchtime!
Me and the wife set off across the motorway among the frost and snow and it got colder and colder as we got nearer to Grimsby. “The thing that sticks in my mind is that I can’t ever remember being as cold as that at a match. The match was recalled in the Sentinel in 2010 by Ian Norcup. The replay at the Victoria Ground was also 1-1, but Stoke won a second replay 6-0. It was an end-to-end cup tie after that, but both defences held firm, although referee Trelford Mills blew his whistle at any semblance of physical contact. The hosts equalised on the hour mark when a cross by Bob Cumming deflected off two defenders and Walsh poked the loose ball home. George Berry and Tony Kelly join their forwards in an attack on the home goal as Stoke City take on Grimsby Town in the FA Cup at Blundell Park in January 1987.
Lee Dixon was becoming a star at right-back, Steve Parkin was winning England youth recognition on the left, Steve Bould was proving a brilliant centre-half and Carl Saunders and Nicky Morgan were leading an increasingly prolific attacking unit. Temperatures on the east coast would dip to -14C that month and that’s where Stoke were heading, with Mick Mills, 3,000 fans and 20 supporter coaches. Januwas the coldest January day, at least in London, since records began in 1940. Anyone who was listening on the radio is apparently still hoping Nigel Johnson was wearing his long johns. Supporters have been made to suffer on open terraces in the rain in the past - most famously when they started doing the conga at Swindon - but this was particularly brutal, as winds picked up over the North Sea and a Stoke side in a swashbuckling mood were sent out on a near-frozen pitch.Īnyone who was there is apparently still thawing out. There was one word that kept being repeated when we asked what is the coldest Stoke City game fans had ever experienced: Grimsby. It was a bitter afternoon with not much to warm supporters up from the pitch, where an icy wind cut clearances short and Blackburn Rovers ran out 1-0 winners.īut that was nothing, apparently, compared to one infamous afternoon. Even Stoke City fans, whose home every other Saturday afternoon is never known for being particularly warm, were noting just how cold it was at the weekend.