Freezing in Warsaw

Legia Warsaw 0-2 Jagiellonia Bialystok
Polish Ekstraklasa
Tuesday 27th February 2018

What is the coldest that you've ever been at a football match?

It's a question which has been asked countless times over the years and quite often it's the same coastal grounds which crop up in response such as Hartlepool United or Grimsby Town. Oldham Athletic is also another common answer given that Boundary Park always seems to be freezing cold - irrespective of what time of year you happen to be there!

Before this trip abroad, my own answer would have been either a Scottish Premier League midweek match in November 2010 when Dundee United lost to St Mirren or just a month later when Doncaster Rovers beat Middlesbrough on a frozen Keepmoat Stadium pitch.

However, those games don't have anything on when Legia Warsaw versus Jagiellonia Bialystok during the infamous icy blast called 'Beast from the East'.

In Poland, temperatures were -13/-14 overnight and still sub-zero during daylight hours - thus meaning it was the type of coldness where you got frostbite if you had your hands out of your pockets for any longer than a minute or two. It was so cold the Vistula River, which flows through the city, had frozen over and despite 'tripling up' with three layers of clothes and wearing thick gloves during the game, it still felt, quite literally, Baltic!

I'd planned the trip several weeks in advance to coincide with football and flew into the Polish capital from Bologna on the Monday afternoon after spending a long weekend in Northern Italy.

Legia are one of Poland's most successful clubs and arguably their most famous, having clinched 13 league titles and qualified for the UEFA Champions League as well. They play at the quirky-named 'Polish Army Stadium' which is located on the southern edge of the city around four kilometres (about a 45-minute stroll) from the picturesque tourist hot-spots of the 'Old Town'.

The fixture promised intrigue as Legia's opponents Jagiellonia (who'd never won any silverware previously and were a somewhat 'run of the mill' team) had emerged as very unlikely title contenders following some decent form earlier in the season. It wasn't quite a six-pointer 'winner takes it all' title-decider type contest, though it was very much a clash between two decent sides who you knew would be challenging at the top come the final day.

Even though it was freezing outdoors and the iced-over pavements were lined with lumps of snow every few yards, having wrapped up as much as possible, I decided to walk to the stadium and it was easy/straightforward to find with the benefit of a map.

Tickets for the 'big' game were 55 Polish Zloty (equivalent to £12) in the side stand and cheaper in the Ultras Section behind the goal. Though it's tempting to sometimes go for the cheapest option, it's always worth remembering that fans on the continent are a bit more tapped in the head compared to their English counterparts and trivial stuff like pulling out a camera phone is likely to be met with scornful responses, if not confrontation, so it's usually worth paying that little bit extra - and besides, it's still cheaper than most matches in England!

Having arrived at the stadium quite early compared to others to allow time for the Passport/ID tickets and to avoid potential queues, I was thankful there was an indoor course which was relatively warm compared to outside where temperatures had been below freezing all day and were just getting worse now that it was past sunset.

It was whilst in the concourse that news filtered through from back home that Steve Evans had quit my old club Mansfield Town to take over as manager at Peterborough United (who at the time were in the division above). Regrettably, I never got to work under Evans, but I can relate to some of the internal issues he faced in the job and it wasn't a surprise that he jumped ship.

The supporters didn't like it and trotted out the usual 'Judas' and 'Traitor' bull sh*t in the wake of his departure and whined about loyalty like most fans everywhere seem to do in this scenario. However, given the guy was based in Peterborough anyway, was offered more money by a bigger club and could have quite easily been sacked at the end of that 2017/18 season had he failed to win promotion, then who could really blame him for his decision to leave? It didn't work out at Peterborough - that's football, but the irony is that Evans is managing in League One right now (at Gillingham) whereas Mansfield still haven't reached that level. Had he stayed put, in my opinion, he'd have probably achieved automatic promotion, but he didn't, David Flitcroft was poached from Swindon as his replacement and the rest is history.

Anyway, whilst I was chuckling to myself and reading enraged fans spout their bitterness towards the big bloke, it was still bloody freezing in Warsaw as it approached kick-off at 8.30pm.

Jagiellonia were backed by a decent number of travelling fans and wore a red and yellow kit which was distinctive and reminded me of RC Lens. The surprise title-challengers played the better football, created more openings and ran rings around their more well-known hosts. Had it not been for some poor finishing, they could quite easily have won by three or four goals, but as it was they went 1-0 up early on and then finally struck again in the dying minutes to get the victory.

Legia did have the last laugh, nonetheless, as they went on to clinch the league title on the final day of the season ahead of Jagiellonia!