Best Winter Matches ? (7 Viewers)

[bringbackrattles]

I used to love the winter games at Highfield Road when the sides of the pitch had piles of snow heaped up and they'd play with a bright orange ball,with the floodlights on in the afternoon.I remember a great wintry game verses Liverpool when they had a star studded team with the likes of Hunt,St John,and Callaghan,and we got a deserved draw.And of course that great Boxing Day match against Norwich that we won 5-4 and it was a freezing afternoon but the game was so exciting you hardly noticed.Any other fan on here enjoy it when it's brass monkey weather ?

 

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[Nonleagueherewecome]

Gotta be the Blackburn game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2IKIe1-16o

Loved that side, so crap, but what a performance-Rennie in a rare game in midfield for us!

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Worst-losing to Norwich at the Ricoh a few years ago. Holt and Martin doing damage I think.

 

[Mary_Mungo_Midge]

Gotta be the Blackburn game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2IKIe1-16o

Loved that side, so crap, but what a performance-Rennie in a rare game in midfield for us!

Agreed. I remember Shearer moaning all day too. Absolutely brilliant day

 

[Deleted member 5849]

Gotta be the Blackburn game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2IKIe1-16o

Loved that side, so crap, but what a performance-Rennie in a rare game in midfield for us!

The frustrating thing was, the side should and could have been superb.

But yes, David Rennie, wtf was he all about?!? Despite everything though, he popped up at certain moments to impersonate a footballer rather well. Also vaguely remember him scoring an equaliser against Wimbledon when we were down to 9 men, but maybe I dreamt that!

 

[hill83]

 

[Mary_Mungo_Midge]

That clip is great. Big Ron's Foster Grant shades on a snowy winters day, Jim Blyth looking like a gangster on the bench, and Peter Ndlovu - going a whole 8 minutes on that clip without shagging one of Coventry's finest young ladies. Must have been the longest he managed in his time in the city

 

[bringbackrattles]

For us older fans what about that iconic picture of Neil Martin jumping in the air after scoring against Liverpool on a snow covered pitch with his sleeves rolled up and it looked about ten below zero. For younger fans it's worth searching for as players then never wore gloves and games were hardly ever called off !

 

[Mild-Mannered Janitor]

How much would Dion and Peter be worth in today's inflated market for players, they were so good to watch.

 

[wingy]

Gotta be the Blackburn game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2IKIe1-16o

Loved that side, so crap, but what a performance-Rennie in a rare game in midfield for us!

What a great racket made there by possibly 15-18k
Ally Pickering looking useful on the overlap too

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

The frustrating thing was, the side should and could have been superb.

But yes, David Rennie, wtf was he all about?!? Despite everything though, he popped up at certain moments to impersonate a footballer rather well. Also vaguely remember him scoring an equaliser against Wimbledon when we were down to 9 men, but maybe I dreamt that!

Yes, remember that goal, I think! I think I know what it was with Rennie: he was primarily a Division 2 CM most of his career-wasn't he at CM for Leeds against us in the semi? When deployed as a CB, English football being what it was back then, he had a better range of passing than most other defenders which at times had the effect of making him look relatively cultured. Especially when deployed alongside former non-league CB's Busst and Pearce! He was practically elegant by comparison, a decent reader of the game, and with them doing the rough, dirty work, it was a poor man's version of the Peake/Kilcline combination.

I felt quite sad the other week when someone said that they had bumped into Rennie and he "looked really chuffed that someone had recognised him": he was a bit of a legend as far as I was concerned, one of many City cheap-and-cheerful slightly naff players from before the big money hit the game that often played well above his general career ability for us. Rennie got countless MOM awards in the CT and on Mercia when we were in the topflight, I hate the idea of him thinking that he's a forgotten man!

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

What a great racket made there by possibly 15-18k
Ally Pickering looking useful on the overlap too

Yeah I mentioned Ally in the "crap back then, but now..." thread last week. Old footage indicates that he wasn't quite as bad as we remember-or is it just that our standards have been so massively lowered by what we've had to watch in the last few years?!?

 

[Deleted member 5849]

Yeah I mentioned Ally in the "crap back then, but now..." thread last week. Old footage indicates that he wasn't quite as bad as we remember-or is it just that our standards have been so massively lowered by what we've had to watch in the last few years?!?

I never thought he was *bad*, as such, more we were spoiled by having Borrows there for years.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

my favourite was the 5-1 win over Liverpool followed by 3-0 against the villa followed by selling Rosario to Norwich

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

To Forest, we got him from Norwich. Allegedly because he was shagging another player's wife? Actually had some great games for us, either as Quinn's target man or in CM. Including those two games, hence the fee we got!

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Gotta be the Blackburn game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2IKIe1-16o

Loved that side, so crap, but what a performance-Rennie in a rare game in midfield for us!

To Forest, we got him from Norwich. Allegedly because he was shagging another player's wife? Actually had some great games for us, either as Quinn's target man or in CM. Including those two games, hence the fee we got!

Yep you're right and yep he did have some fabulous games was such a pointless sale

 

[hutch1972]

I used to love the winter games at Highfield Road when the sides of the pitch had piles of snow heaped up and they'd play with a bright orange ball,with the floodlights on in the afternoon.I remember a great wintry game verses Liverpool when they had a star studded team with the likes of Hunt,St John,and Callaghan,and we got a deserved draw.And of course that great Boxing Day match against Norwich that we won 5-4 and it was a freezing afternoon but the game was so exciting you hardly noticed.Any other fan on here enjoy it when it's brass monkey weather ?

Been loads of good ones but an fac 2-2 draw v the baggies in 78 was a stand out game for me.
We got hammered in the replay but I still can see alan green scoring near the end ,and in front of over 35k. Oh, the memories!

 

[kg82]

Yeah I mentioned Ally in the "crap back then, but now..." thread last week. Old footage indicates that he wasn't quite as bad as we remember-or is it just that our standards have been so massively lowered by what we've had to watch in the last few years?!?

Got a feeling it might be the latter after having the privilege to witness Duffy and O'Halloran since then!

 

[fernandopartridge]

To Forest, we got him from Norwich. Allegedly because he was shagging another player's wife? Actually had some great games for us, either as Quinn's target man or in CM. Including those two games, hence the fee we got!

He got around. There is a bit in Mick Quinn's book about an occasion when Rosie took a few players to meet some nympho that he knew...

 

[wingy]

Ah Rosario
Became quite Influential when moved to midfield, good vision and very powerful
Really enjoyed his influence from there

 

[tower_skyblue]

4-0 win over Liverpool Dec 1983. Freezing day with a Gibson hatrick to warm everyone up.

 

[torchomatic]

Yeah, that's the one that sticks in my mind.

Also, I missed the chant "We want an orange ball..." We seemed to sing that fairly often in the late 70s, into the 80s.

4-0 win over Liverpool Dec 1983. Freezing day with a Gibson hatrick to warm everyone up.

 

[DazzleTommyDazzle]

I used to love the winter games at Highfield Road when the sides of the pitch had piles of snow heaped up and they'd play with a bright orange ball,with the floodlights on in the afternoon.I remember a great wintry game verses Liverpool when they had a star studded team with the likes of Hunt,St John,and Callaghan,and we got a deserved draw.And of course that great Boxing Day match against Norwich that we won 5-4 and it was a freezing afternoon but the game was so exciting you hardly noticed.Any other fan on here enjoy it when it's brass monkey weather ?

Great thread, thanks for starting it, but......

can I say for the eleventy billionth time that the 5-4 against Norwich WASN'T ON BOXING DAY!!!

Sorry, got a bit over excited.

We played at Villa on Boxing Day that year - the game that Graham Oakey (best attacking full back I've seen?) got injured. We then played Norwich the following day - God knows what Premiership managers today would make of two games in two days....

 

[skybluealan]

4-0 win over Liverpool Dec 1983. Freezing day with a Gibson hatrick to warm everyone up.

I remember that game, I listened to the game on the World Service working in Russia. Great feeling.

 

[torchomatic]

It was probably warmer where you were! Luckily, I had me parka on.

I remember that game, I listened to the game on the World Service working in Russia. Great feeling.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Funny you should mention the orange ball. Not seen one in use for a long time. Saw a brief clip ofa Bundesliga game where it was snowing yet the orange ball didn't appear.

 

[kg82]

My favourite was the arsenal match on Boxing Day 99. That's actually my favourite match at Highfield Road. The atmosphere and the match were brilliant.

 

[torchomatic]

Probably because balls were plain white in those days. None of these new fangled coloured balls.

Funny you should mention the orange ball. Not seen one in use for a long time. Saw a brief clip ofa Bundesliga game where it was snowing yet the orange ball didn't appear.

 

[bringbackrattles]

When I was a kid we played on the farmers fields which is now where the Walsgrave club is situated.We'd play in thick snow and usually a plastic ball, but there was something magical about a bright orange football being passed around a pure white surface. So not only bring back rattles but the orange ball too !

 

[skybluesam66]

i remember a peter barnes early game in the fog - i saw him set off on a mazy run , but lost him half way up the pitch - no idea how that game continued

The win v villa (Micky quinn goals) was also fog bound

Bolton at home (3-0 or 3-1) Ian wallace hat trick? + 3 more disallowed when they had appealed on swap shop for people to go and clear the snow

 

[SkyBlueScottie]

Funny you should mention the orange ball. Not seen one in use for a long time. Saw a brief clip ofa Bundesliga game where it was snowing yet the orange ball didn't appear.

Its those new fangled "winter balls" now....

I remember a friend of mine bought a winter ball from "brittens" on Ball Hill, it was a right bugger to play with, it was leather but with plastic panels to stop the ball picking up moisture, used to kill your foot when kicking.

 

[Moff]

i remember a peter barnes early game in the fog - i saw him set off on a mazy run , but lost him half way up the pitch - no idea how that game continued

I am sure it was against Southampton at home. We won 2-1 I think, Peter Barnes scored the winner from a corner that went in off the keepers legs if my memory is correct?

 

[torchomatic]

I remember seeing him score direct from a corner.

i remember a peter barnes early game in the fog - i saw him set off on a mazy run , but lost him half way up the pitch - no idea how that game continued

The win v villa (Micky quinn goals) was also fog bound

Bolton at home (3-0 or 3-1) Ian wallace hat trick? + 3 more disallowed when they had appealed on swap shop for people to go and clear the snow

 

[Moff]

I rememner seeing him score direct from a corner.

Beat you to it!

 

[hutch1972]

i remember a peter barnes early game in the fog - i saw him set off on a mazy run , but lost him half way up the pitch - no idea how that game continued

The win v villa (Micky quinn goals) was also fog bound

Bolton at home (3-0 or 3-1) Ian wallace hat trick? + 3 more disallowed when they had appealed on swap shop for people to go and clear the snow

I helped to clear snow before a Bolton match around 79 season, think that finished 2-2.
I remember thinking how poor the crowd was that day due to the weather.