Frosty atmosphere of an icy snap at West Brom

Back in 1979 – in what became known as the Winter of Discontent – blizzards held the country in an icy grip that led to more than 100 matches being postponed.

Albion, with the likes of Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson, Johnny Giles and Tony Brown in the team, were flying before football was placed on hold. And earlier this month, club legend Ally Robertson told the Express & Star he believed that team would have toppled Liverpool and gone on to win the league had football not been suspended.

In the winter of the 1962/63 season, the Baggies faced similar disruption due to another icy snap. Snow that quite frankly had to be seen to be believed left some parts of the country under 18 inches of the white stuff. And with temperatures having plummeted to minus 20C, all anyone was concerned about was keeping warm.

But Albion boss Jimmy Hagan still refused to let his players train wearing tracksuit bottoms.

Instead, all the members of the Baggies squad had to carry on in shorts and socks.

The squad was already at breaking point with the boss. Baggies captain Don Howe said at the time: “We are fed up with old-fashioned training methods and being treated like schoolboys instead of intelligent individuals. There is far too much unnecessary dictation and discipline, and not enough time devoted to players putting their own points of view.”

On December 10, 1963, Hagan told his players they had to continue training in shorts despite the fact their legs were going blue.

And that led to the mass walkout, with 10 players also putting in transfer requests.

Joining Howe in stating their intent to leave were Ray Potter, Graham Williams, Doug Fraser, Stan Jones, John Kaye, Bobby Hope, Ronnie Fenton, Terry Simpson and Clive Clark.

The players calmed down and returned to secure a 3-0 win over Manchester United on December 15, 1962.

But to put in context just how bad the weather was, the Baggies only played two more matches over the next three months.

They beat Plymouth 5-1 on January 5, 1963. They then lost to Sheffield Wednesday on January 15. But in between those games, the relationship between Hagan and his players deteriorated even further.

On December 19, 1963, 19 players again walked out of the Spring Road training complex in further protest of Hagan’s methods.

The boss, who was pictured training alone in shorts, had little option but to give in. And he found his players were happy to return when he gave them the chance to train inside the gym instead of on the frozen pitches.

Further embarrassment was to follow for the manager, however.

Hagan had purchased a new car and was getting used to being behind the wheel of an automatic instead of having gears.

And he accidentally placed his foot on the accelerator instead of the brake and ended up in the nearby canal.

The manager needed rescuing by the very players he was in conflict with.

One who helped him climb out the vehicle was goalkeeper Tony Millington, who ended up out of breath because of his efforts. Hagan then turned to him and said, without a hint of humour: “You seem out of breath to me... are you not fit?” And that led to plenty more days of uncomfortable training sessions.

When football did return in March, Albion had to play 19 games before the middle of May. They went on to finish 14th in the First Division.

But while many felt Hagan had burned his bridges – he got himself back on track and in 1966 guided Albion to a famous League Cup win.