We’re so used to watching football in perfect conditions these days that Sunday’s home win against West Ham felt like a bit of a culture shock.

Premier League clubs, like Manchester City, spend the budget of a small country or their pitches these days, with artificial fibre woven into the root systems and the grass is fed, weeded and nourished like never before.

The result of surfaces that look like billiard tables and never have irregular bounces.

Pep’s City plays the ball back to goalkeeper Ederson safe in the knowledge that the rolling ball wont suddenly lift over his foot due to a divot kicked up during the game. Perfect pitches certainly help the perfect teams, like City, who rely on precision passing, along the ground.

I’ve often wondered how the players of earlier eras would have “coped” with the modern conditions.

On Sunday, snow was forecast for the game and started to slowly fall in the two hours before kickoff. I was more aware of this, than most, because I was chatting to the volunteers at the MCFC Foodbank collection point, near the junction of Alan Turing Way and Ashton New Road as the first flakes fell. I was as prepared for the cold conditions as I could be.

I had eight layers on, though I still felt a bit chilly, so I was full of admiration for Nick and his fellow volunteers as they stood, hopefully, under their gazebo, collection donations of tins and other offerings to help maintain stock in the food banks. They’re there at every weekend home game.

During the game the snow started to come down much more heavily during the first half causing the ball to leave a line in the show as it moved from and player to player. You could see that there was a little less confidence from both teams.

I never had any doubt that the game would finish, though many of those heading to the shelter of the indoor concourses as half time approached were muttering about whether we’d see a second half. Thankfully by the time the referee blew his whistle the snow had virtually stopped which allowed Lee Jackson and his groundstaff to start clearing the pitch.

They did a great job and the referee helped out by extending the halftime break which meant that by the time the players came back out the pitch was back to normal. I recorded my usual matchday vlog, which you can find on YouTube, and I’ve seen some people commentating in a curious way.

One fan wrote, “Didn’t we used to have undersoil heating?”, another put “Does your undersoil heating not work. Don’t understand why this happens”. I can understand the frustration but even with my limited understanding of these things I do know that the playing surface can’t be that warm that the snow melts instantly, otherwise it would surely be steamy on cold days.

Head groundsman Lee Jackson replied on social media, “(The undersoil heating) keeps the soil soft, snow takes longer to melt as there’s a gap between the soil and the grass it sits on top of and therefore there’s no direct contact with the heat as could also be seen at Leicester and Burnley”. I hope that clears things up.

City navigated the changing conditions superbly and moved to within a point of the Premier League summit with the “duracell bunny”, Bernardo Silva, once again leading the team brilliantly.

The Blues will be playing games every three days during December, so they’ll be hoping for speedy returns for De Bruyne, Foden, Torres and Grealish in the coming days so that the work load will be spread more evenly.

Hopefully snow fall won’t be the big talking point next week after tricky trips to Villa and Watford. As always, it’s great to be a Blue!      

Want more local sport stories?

Head to https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/sport/ to see more of our coverage - from community and non-league football to local and county cricket, boxing, athletics, basketball, Esports and golf.