Hottest, Coldest or Wettest You've Been At A Match

[Satchmo Distel]

Hottest: Colchester v Plymouth 12.8.95. Stuck in a tin shed of an away end and absolutely melting (my best friend in the mid-90s was a Plymouth fan living near me in York before moving to Long Eaton: we worked in railway call centres). Plymouth won 5-0 at Bury a few weeks later and beat Darlington in the play-offs that season.

Coldest: Playing in goal for my school team in November 1978.

Wettest: I think I've avoided getting truly drenched but the above match in goal might be the closest.

[elguapo4]

Hottest; with the League of Ireland now playing summer football, there's a few candidates, but away to St Patrick's Athletic a couple of years ago comes to mind. The away end is at the east end of the ground, so we had the westerly sun beating down for the entire game.

Coldest; a cup midweek replay away to UCD in February back when we played the regular season , it was so cold I literally couldn't feel any of my extremeties.

Coldest and wettest; back when I was playing, I was in goal for a game that we won 7.2 . The opposition scored in the first minute and late on, and for most of the rest of the time I was unemployed in torrential rain and hailstones. That was a cold bloody day.

[Southport Zeb]

Hottest - a game at Jeunesse Esch in August 2012 comes to mind. The hottest I've been for any sport might have been rugby league at Hunslet Parkside on the day that England played Sweden in the World Cup quarter final. Most of the crowd were gathered in the very small area of shade.

Coldest - I remember going to watch Leigh Genesis play one of their few games at the Sports Village, which was one of few games in the area to survive on a particularly icy day, thanks to the stadiums undersoil heating. I remember walking past the frozen canal on the way to the ground. Another cold match was a CONCACAF Champions Cup match at a small ground in the suburbs of Washington - subs for the Jamaican visitors were very well wrapped up.

Wettest - I got soaked watching a match at Crooklands Casuals, where the only cover was a hedge. Crooklands play just outside Dalton-in-Furness, whose other team, Dalton United, do have a proper stand but whom I visited on a sunny day.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Wettest is Beşiktaş versus Bursaspor in their title winning season, played in torrential rain with no away fans. Going into the Beşiktaş end cheering on Bursa secretly was great fun and I forgot how wet I was.

Coldest would be IBB vs Gaziantepspor at Atat?rk Olympic Stadium, you can pick pretty much any of the games I went to but being made to sit in the upper tier was probably the coldest.

Hottest has to be Beşiktaş again, a Europa League match against a team from the Faroes, ridiculously hot and humid.

[Tony C]

Hottest: An early season non league game at RCB Carabanchel in Madrid, probably August 2015 and temperature certainly mid 30’s.

Coldest: An FA Cup tie between West Brom and Man City at the Hawthorns in January 1977. Numbingly freezing, didn’t enjoy the game one bit. I’ve only ever been as cold at Oldham RLFC’s old Watersheddings ground.

Wettest: Droylsden FC v Stalybridge Celtic about twelve years ago. Inadequately attired and completely soaked to the skin. Lived in Warrington at the time so had a bit of a drive home too.

[Patrick Thistle]

Hottest - Wembley for the League One play off final in 2018. The direct sun moved along the Shrewsbury end and eventually reached us in the second half. I moved with my Mum for extra time out of the sun and into the shade. Good thing we did because we saw people collapsing with heatstroke.

Coldest - a game at Clachnacuddin in August. Tea with two sugars and Mars Bars at half time stopped me and my Dad from getting hypothermia.

Wettest - the away end of the Vetch. The water was pooling on the ground several inches deep and although we weren't getting directly rained on, large volumes of water had ingress through gaps in the roof. That ground was an absolute shithole for away fans.

[Uncle Ethan]

Playing - under 15s game where snow was coming in horizontally down the length of the pitch. You couldn't see past the halfway line. We scored five in the first half, let in four in the second.

Watching - FA Cup fifth round 1978 away v Bristol Rovers. Snow-covered pitch, orange ball (and Town shirts). 2-0 down with a few minutes left. Should have been 3-0 as Gould had goal wrongly disallowed. Robin Turner scored twice at the end. Knew name was on Cup then. Only time (that I know of) when Dad wore tights.

[jameswba]

Hottest : Several opening day fixtures are candidates. Two featured Barnsley, one at the Hawthorns in 96/97, when Clint Marcelle inspired a 2-1 win for the visitors and the other at Oakwell two seasons later. The most dehydrated I've been at a game was probably the opening day of the season in between. My brother, a friend and I had a rare lunchtime drink-up, then sat in the Brummie Road End in the beating sun as Albion beat Tranmere 2-1. Hottest of all though was probably a UEFA Cup qualifier between Artmedia Bratislava and WIT Tiblisi in July 2006. It was 37 degrees by the Danube that day.

Coldest : Telford vs Leeds in an infamous FA Cup 3rd round tie in 86/87. It was moved to the Hawthorns on police advice and then had to go ahead as 350 police had already been called in for duty. The pitch wasn't remotely playable. Leeds fans in the Smethwick End spent the half-time break jumping up and down on the spot en masse. Also, Slavia Prague vs Besiktas in another UEFA tie in Feb 2017. That was a chilly night, to put it mildly.

Wettest : Oddly, I remember getting wet less than getting hot or cold. Portsmouth vs Albion in 96/97 was a candidate. Albion were 4-0 down at half-time as rain and sleet came slanting into Fratton Park's away end. Still, I remember being cold and wondering what I was doing there more than being wet.

[Uncle Ethan]

Wettest was Portman Road - v Arsenal I think and it absolutely tipped down. An Anglia TV weather forecaster was in with the standing plebs and got absolutely hammered about failing to predict the torrential rain as we all ran for cover.

Hottest - any one of the ludicrous afternoon kick offs we get lumbered with in Perth during summer when it is 30+ would qualify, but it was actually an away game in Adelaide in the NSL days. North of 40 ahead of kick off. You could have poached an egg on Gareth Naven's bonce.

[Jobi1]

Hottest – several candidates for this, particularly games during the August/September I spent in Tuscany in 2010. I was in that uncovered end at Oakwell mentioned by others for Barnsley's first game in the Premier League (my dad is a West Ham fan), and don't think I was too far from heatstroke. Similarly, Carlisle v York, first game of our doomed 2003/04 season, when City won 2-1 (all 3 goals within the first 10 minutes) and everything seemed wonderfully promising, with the sun shining relentlessly into the big stand all through the game. But I'll go for Maidstone v York, first game of 2016/17, lunchtime kick-off for the telly (they liked the sound of freshly promoted team v freshly relegated team), heat visibly shimmering off the artificial pitch, which apparently the players could feel melting under their feet, bottled water being handed out free as people were really struggling in our end.

Coldest – a few games from my time in northern Italy with their exposed stadiums immediately spring to mind, snowy ones at Varese and Brescia in particular, but the one I'll always pick for this was a trip with friends to Germany in early February 2012, during a serious cold snap across the whole of Europe, for Dortmund v Leverkusen. Started out with jovial "Blimey, it's a bit parky innit!", but by the second half was grim silence of the "this is not actually funny or enjoyable" type.

Wettest – got to be another West Ham one with the old man, on the uncovered away end for the infamous Iain Dowie own goal game at Stockport in the League Cup. The only time I can recall being soaked through literally every layer, including the undercrackers. I remember a friend getting a half-time cuppa, drinking a bit, and seeing it visibly being refilled in his hand.

[nmrfox]

Hottest - any number of early/late season games, but the one that stands out for me was in August 84 when Newcastle won at Filbert Street 3-2 and it was absolutely baking. Also remember boiling at Trent Bridge on the May Bank holiday in 2012 and seeing all of the lobsters at work the following week who couldn't get out of the sun at Wembley when the Blades lost to Huddersfield in the play-off final when Steve Simonsen put his penalty into orbit.

Coldest - 1979 Leicester v Norwich in the FA Cup. It was so called that the greatest player in Leicester's history (see my avatar) wore tights....

Wettest - in those days when MotD showed only 2 games, the cameras rolled up for Leicester v Southampton in 1983. The game was abandoned after 22 minutes due to an absolute downpour (which didn't stop for some time afterwards - I got home looking like I'd been for a swim in the canal).

[Capybara]

Hottest: Carl Zeiss Jena 4 Union Fuerstenwalde 0, 27 August 2016. I was standing in the home end and it was so hot they asked the fire service who were in attendance to turn their hose on them (3:57 in video). Afterwards I went to a bar in the main square and the gaffer excitedly showed me the local newspaper which claimed a recorded temperature of 42C. I’m sure that wasn’t a scientific measurement but it was very hot.

Coldest: Arsenal 2 Middlesbrough 0, 1 January 1997. Bryan Robson’s last game as it turned out. We were sat in the Clock End at Highbury. It was a bright, sunny day but extremely cold.

Wettest: Bristol City 3 Middlesbrough 0, 29 December 1990. We walked from the railway station to the ground via a pub in steady rain so were soaked by the time we got to the ground. To get some cover I asked where the seats for away fans were. I was told there weren’t any. So we had to a stand on an open terrace while the rain simply continued all afternoon. Complete misery.

[Fearful Symmetry]

Hottest - I've been in quite a few sweatbox stands, the little 'Subbuteo' stand at Valley Parade in 1993, Colchester's cow shed in 1996, but the last game of the season against Cardiff in 2013 was a scorcher, made even worse by the absolute drama that surrounded the game.

Coldest - I'll happily argue with anyone that our FA Cup 'replay' against Runcorn, played at Witton Albion's ground in 1993 was the coldest night that professional football has ever been played on in this country. Due to the size of the travelling contingent and the small size of the toilets in the away end, a mass pissing session took place at full time against the side of the coaches, and the yellow steam cloud that rose into the sky probably had planes diverting around it. Special mention for Hartlepool on Bank Holiday Monday in 1994, when the wind blew in off the sea.

Wettest - 2 in the same season, 1996/97. An early season game at Carlisle saw a good few hundred of us take position on the open terrace behind the goal, when with about 10 minutes to kick off an absolute mega thunderstorm passed over and deposited biblical amounts of water on the ground. Quite a few fans ran for the shelter of the side stand, and it genuinely got to the point where an abandonment looked likely. Then suddenly it stopped, the clouds parted and the strongest sun burst through, and those who remained standing slowly steamed until they were completely dry.

A couple of months later, our FA Cup 1st round game against Whitby Town was moved to the Stadium Of Chips at Scarborough, and this time the rain was relentless for the whole day. Even though we were undercover the roof had multiple leaks, the drains overflowed and the toilets flooded. The game itself was an absolute lottery with standing water and players sliding all over, and what would have been a winning goal for Whitby denied by the ball sticking in the goalmouth. I still blame the exposure I was subjected to that day for contracting the mother of all flu bugs, which rendered me bed ridden for the replay. Not that I missed much, we only won 8-4 after extra time. Pah.

[RobW]

I can't think about the hottest.

The coldest and wettest might have been at Forest Green a few years ago in League 2, midweek in September. It absolutely lashed down with rain and was seemingly blowing a gale. Worse, for some reason, Forest Green decided to house visiting supporters in the uncovered terrace along the side of the pitch, rather than the one behind the goal as had been usual. Despite the conditions, City won 1-0 thanks to a rush of blood by the FGR keeper chasing a City ball over the top which Harry Anderson got to first. He still managed a very nice finish from a tight angle into the empty net.

Our defeat to Carshalton (the lowest of the low during our recent national league stint) in the FA Trophy replay was in early January, and I recall that being exceptionally cold.

[Mr Beast]

Coldest and wettest (certainly most miserable) were probably the same game.

FA Cup 3rd round replay in 1991 away to Wimbledon. Possibly the worst game I’ve ever attended and to cap it all it went to extra time. Wimbledon scored in the 120th minute to win. Obviously there was no shelter for away supporters at Plough Lane, a game that still produces a shudder 30 years on. Maybe some of the Wimbledon fans on otf were there as well?

[Capybara]

Coldest and wettest (certainly most miserable) were probably the same game.

FA Cup 3rd round replay in 1991 away to Wimbledon. Possibly the worst game I’ve ever attended and to cap it all it went to extra time. Wimbledon scored in the 120th minute to win. Obviously there was no shelter for away supporters at Plough Lane, a game that still produces a shudder 30 years on. Maybe some of the Wimbledon fans on otf were there as well?

Heh! I was there. I was in the Wimbledon end with a couple of mates and we managed to get a spot which was right under the front of the roof so we were getting soaked depending on the direction of the wind. One friend said after about 15 minutes, 'this could go to extra time you know.' It was dire.

[gavc23]

Coldest would be one of

Bower Fold, Stalybridge on a Friday night. Early to mid-90s, Stalybridge beat, I think, Buxton.

Or the old open terrace at Tynecastle that was the away end around 1996-7. I know it was cold because I bit into a pie and was able to pour the grease out onto the terrace - it froze to form a brown-grey patch of ice

[Uros Predic]

Hottest: Leyton Orient vs Doncaster Rovers – our first game back in the Football League – being out on an open terrace at Brisbane Road in the height of the August 2003 heatwave – I managed to grab one of the last bottles of (very warm) water from the snackbar when Rovers scored a third goal; the ensuing celebrations allowing me to jump about 15 places in the queue. Or Croatia v Wales in Osijek in June 2019; another open terrace in 35 degrees with the added positive of the police confiscating water and suncream from fans on the way in.

Coldest: Sigma Olomouc vs 1.FC Slovacko in March 2018. It was -7 degrees at kick-off, cold enough to make a mate's beer freeze over during the second half. That just pips being in the Stirling Albion end for a league game at Ibrox on a freezing Saturday lunchtime in mid-March 2013 (the day after the Scotland v Wales game in the snow at Hampden). At half-time I contemplated buying two pies to help me warm up, one for each foot.

Wettest: An 8-1 home defeat for Lewisham Borough in 2018. The midday Good Friday kick-off had enticed a load of groundhoppers to Ladywell Arena, meaning the one tiny stand was full when I arrived so I had to stand out in a downpour for the whole thing. When I made it home I found that not only had the water seeping through my jeans turned my legs blue, but a fiver I'd had in my pocket had pretty much disintegrated.

[Third rate Leszno]

Hottest - a few to choose from, for humidity probably Tampa Bay Rowdies v Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the NASL on a thundery 4th of July evening. I've sweated my bollocks off at a couple of early European qualifiers at Park Hall, Oswestry too, it's in a dip so the heat seems to settle there and there never seems to be any breeze to provide relief.

Wettest - Carlisle v Grimsby on a Tuesday night in the early 90s, had gone up there early for a few pints and it was absolutely hosing down. On the walk to the ground we were all so wet that we were jumping into puddles to soak one another even more, then we stood in the open Paddock for 90 minutes and inevitably it finished 0-0. We were still sodden when we got home an hour and a bit after the match.

Coldest - I'm tempted to say 'any time I've stood on the Poplar terrace at Southport' as it's always several degrees colder than it ought to be. I've left home (20 mins away) in 20 degree stillness and warmth and by the time I'm on the terrace it's 12 degrees and blowing a stiff breeze. I reckon it's built on an ancient burial ground for plague victims or summat and the cold and chill just seeps up out of the soil.

For a one-off though, Bayern Munich v Nurnberg in December 2018. Wind gusting 40-50mph across the wasteland outside and I was dying on my arse with a heavy cold to boot. No amount of gluhwein could warm me up, we actually left our upper tier seats at half time and watched the second half over peoples heads from the concourse downstairs because it was fractionally warmer.

[NickSTFU]

Hottest- 9 August 2003, Margate at home. I actually got heatstroke and was unwell for a couple of days. Probably due to the amount of booze I drank on the Friday night/Saturday morning, lunchtime. This was our first game in the Conference.

Coldest-10 Dec 2002, Port Vale at home in the Football League Trophy (when I used to go to those types of games). It was the first, and only time, I saw a golden goal winner, when Ryan Lowe scored to make it 2-1 to Salop.

Wettest-6 April 2011, away at Macclesfield, when it absolutely pissed down from the first minute, till the last. Salop won 3-1 on our way to promotion.

Nice that all those games were significant in some minor way.

[My Name Is Ian]

Hottest: I went to the Reading Festival in about 1989 or 1990 and took acid on the Friday night. Feeling as though every single one of my nerve endings was on fire, I wandered into the two and had a cup of tea and a look through the papers, where I saw that Wokingham Town were ground-sharing at Reading while their ground was being renovated, so I decided to sack off a Saturday afternoon's worth of festival music and go to the football instead. It was really strange, there were about 400 there I think, and Wokingham scored in the first minute. Within about three or four minutes of that I was fast asleep on the top step of a terrace behind the goal and was woken up after the match by a steward who told me that the score had stayed 1-0. The LSD had obviously ensured that I'd had next to no sleep the night before, but the heat finished me off.

Coldest: I've only ever seen a match played on a snow-covered pitch once before. That came in 1999 when St Albans had an FA Trophy replay against Ashton United and, with the scores tied about halfway through the second half, there was a blizzard. Rather than calling the whole thing off, they just got an orange ball out and carried on regardless, even through the whole of extra-time. I couldn't feel my toes by the time I got home that night.

Wettest: Back at St Albans again, I went against my better judgement to an FA Trophy game against Crawley Town with a friend in, I think, 2004. It was pouring with rain - absolutely hammering down - and when that happened everybody would go and stand under the cover along the side rather than on the open terraces behind the goals. We lasted six minutes. It was too packed to really be able to fit under the cover, so we looked at each other, sacked it off, and spent the entire afternoon in the bar drinking ourselves daft instead, in no small part with the help of one of the bar staff, who was more than happy to just give us free drinks (we did know them). The match finished 0-0. Other than that, almost every single one of the matches that I ever went to at The Withdean was either bitterly cold, pouring with rain, or both.

[Mr Beast]

Heh! I was there. I was in the Wimbledon end with a couple of mates and we managed to get a spot which was right under the front of the roof so we were getting soaked depending on the direction of the wind. One friend said after about 15 minutes, 'this could go to extra time you know.' It was dire.

Now I feel more sorry for you than me. I can’t imagine watching that dross in those conditions if you weren’t a fan of either team. My brother drove down from York, the mug.

[longeared]

Hottest - Either Wednesday v Villa on the opening day in 1996, or Sheffield v Litherland REMYCA in August 2019. The latter was the only time I've seen a game have a water break.

Coldest - Would have been Armthorpe Welfare v Parkgate in December 2018 but I sacked that off and stayed in the pub as it was too cold - it made the weekend just gone feel positively tropical. So Wednesday v Wolves in December 2005 where there was a light frost forming on the pitch and a couple of players were wearing leggings under their shorts.

Wettest - Struggling on this one, remember getting rained on a few times when the South Stand at Hillsborough was partially uncovered. Had some very wet days going to / from grounds - Wednesday v Manchester United in December 1996 and the abandoned game against Coventry in 2007 where there were people catching the bus two stops from the ground. Worksop Town on a pitch with standing water in 2015, Hyde United in March 2019 on a day when most other games in the region were waterlogged off and they only played because of their 3G. Was also at the aforementioned game at Ladywell Arena on Good Friday 2018 trying to stay dry in the stand, it was one of those Atcost jobbies with three rows and the front row was out in the rain so unusable. After the match I walked across south London in the continuing downpour passing a flood under a railway bridge in Catford and was sat feeling very wet in a pub in Forest Hill.

[The Mighty Trin]

Wettest: Hull FC v Wakefield Trinity at The Boulevard circa 1992. Heavy rain but we got a rare away win so that was fine. In football terms, Barrow v Solihull Moors 30/12/17. I'd stayed overnight, popped my head into the excellent rugby league ground then went to visit Furness Abbey whilst wearing inappropriate footwear. Squelchy feet all day and shoes and socks off for the long train journey back to Walthamstow Village. Some local joker wore shorts to the game. I also got soaked at a rugby league game at the Sydney Olympic Stadium around 2009. So wet that we watched half the second half under the stands near the bar.

Coldest: Arsenal v Leyton Orient in the FA Cup replay in 2011 was a cold one as was Reading v Forest on New Year's Day 2014. I was a layer short and wishing for the game to end, which made me cross with myself. Also 11 year old me playing school football. Snowing and I was so cold that I couldn't do my shirt buttons up after the game. I bet all the kids wear gloves now. Character building, made me a man, etc.

Hottest: No game stands out.

Most hungover: 8/17 Dover v Barrow and 8/19 Bath City v Tonbridge Angels. Both train journeys to the games were spent fast asleep, but in Bath a cheeky Nando's sorted me right out.

[Eggchaser]

Hottest - Can't remember the year, but it was one of the opening matches of the London Double Header that used to run at Twickenham when Quins, Wasps, London Irish and Saracens used to have day out at Twickenham to kick the season off. It was boiling and we arrived for the Quins match which was on second, my mother got heatstroke (we had to convince the medics she hadn't drunk any booze because apparently the combination was causing real staff problems dealing with it and they were getting fed up with the situation), I sweated so much I had to buy a T shirt from the shop as my shirt was soaked and my father drank more water in about two hours than I had ever seen him drink in a week.

Coldest - Another Quins match in the depths of winter, against Saracens. At half time me and my father retreated to the Members Bar which, before they upgraded and redeveloped the West Stand had windows just above the back row of seating so you could see the match from inside.

Wettest - University Sunday league match, lumbering around at centre back, hungover like a dead man, playing for my Hall of Residence. The rain fell down, bounced off the ground and fell again. The pitch was so muddy that I tackled someone at the edge of the centre circle and nearly hit the halfway line, ball still at my outstretched foot, before I could get up to play on. It was brilliant, the skill levels of players far better than me were completely negated by the conditions. And I scored my only goal in competitive football, a half volley from a corner into the top of the net through a scramble of bodies, including one of my own team, who rose, salmon like, in what appeared to be a spirited attempt to head the ball off their line.