Worst - Reading midweek away in 1997. Reading had lost 8 in a row going into it. We needed a win desperately and we lost 3 nil. We were 1 nil down after 10 mins and I remember thinking I want to go home because this will only get worse.
Coldest - Arsenal away last season when we took on the Beast from the East and won. Right up there with the best away days ever and it was fooking freezing.
By bizarre coincidence (cos not many people remember it in amongst the defeats to Bury and Stockport closer to home), that 3-0 defeat to Reading, which was the last season at Elm Park IIRC, is also my own personal worst ever City performance (with a spineless 6-0 battering at the Baseball Ground, and a 0-0 draw at home to what was effectively Bristol Rovers youth team - they had 5 teenagers playing - not far behind). I can’t remember who was in goal at Reading, but he was fucking shite, and the mix ups between him and the ponderous quartet in front of him were comi-tragic. Luckily I had a relatively short trip back to London afterwards. As to the coldest, I remember a 1-3 home defeat to Carlisle in the 80’s when David Phillips put us in front in the first minute or two, when it was -17 degrees, a 1-1 midweek draw against Wimbledon when they were lodging at Selhurst Park, and the Beast from the East League Cup Final last season, but the closest I got to hypothermia (and I guarantee no other City fan will have been present), was watching Exeter away at Colchester last December. Just off the A12, flat featureless landscape, flat pack stadium with great gaps in the corners, snow and ice everywhere and a biting Siberian wind, I had a neck spasm migraine so bad, I had to stop at Thurrock Services on the way back, put the back seat down and lie in the back/boot of the car for an hour before I could open my eyes enough again to drive the rest of the way home. I honestly nearly cried. And they lost 3-1. The things we do for love......
As to the other categories, Millwall away in 97, when Badbuy equalised for us in the 93rd minute and triggered an hour long riot outside whilst we were locked in the ground, was unquestionably the scariest, the away paddock at the Swamp when we scored twice in the last 12 minutes to steal a 2-2 draw the day before the Full Members Cup Final was one of the most full, Seville was the furthest I’ve been to away, Schalke away one of the friendliest, and the 3-1 win against the rags when Neville fed the Goat, the best atmosphere. Madrid’s police win the biggest cnut’s award, closely followed by the West Midlands finest in a 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns, circa 88 (Adcock scored for us), when they chucked out half the away end for non-crimes such as singing, looking at me in a funny way, bleeding on their batons, etc etc
