How United effort helped Grayson's men beat the big freeze

Well, for once, our cousins from the south had a point over the weekend as snow and ice wreaked havoc on the football calendar.

From Carlisle to Sunderland and Sheffield to Burnley, the north of England suffered a wave of postponements to leave thousands of northern football fans without their weekly fix.

The weather proved such a formidable opponent during the latter stages of the week that, by Saturday morning, only seven fixtures remained on across the country. And only one of them was north of the Midlands.

That it should be Leeds United who bucked the trend was no surprise to anyone who had passed through LS11 from Wednesday onwards as the area around Elland Road became a hive of activity.

Not only were two tractors, brought to Leeds from the club's Thorp Arch training ground, attempting to clear the snow that continued to fall, but grit and sand was being laid on all the approaches in an attempt to keep frost at bay.

It was a similar story inside the ground where an army of staff and volunteers worked around the clock to keep the elements at bay. The club's state-of-the-art undersoil heating had been left on 24 hours a day since Christmas so the pitch was never going to be a problem, so much so that Simon Grayson's players were able to train at Elland Road last Friday.

But the same could not be said about the areas around the pitch with the front few rows of all four stands having been covered in snow by Wednesday morning along with the dugouts. With more snow expected and the streets around Elland Road also a concern, it was clear to the powers-that-be that an action plan was needed.

Leeds chief executive Shaun Harvey said: "We looked at the forecast on Monday morning and the news was not good so we decided to sit down and plan what could be done to give us the best chance of playing the game against Wycombe.

"Our supporters, some of whom come a very long way to watch home games, did not want a postponement and neither did we so everyone mucked in. The tractors were a big help as without them there is no way we could have moved the volume of snow.

"Around nine inches fell on Elland Road and the surrounding area so people have had to work round the clock to get it moved. As we have seen around the country, often the biggest problem is not the pitch but the streets outside. So, with that in mind, we endeavoured to clear as much as we could before Friday when the (Leeds City Council) safety team were due to visit.

"They were impressed by what they saw, plus some of the contingency plans we had drawn up such as parking the away fans' coaches on Fullerton Park.

"Usually, they are on the other side of Elland Road but the slope in that car park could have caused problems. Similarly, the ambulances that are on standby outside the ground every game were also temporarily moved to a more suitable location.

"The safety team gave the go-ahead and, from then on, we were always confident the game would go ahead providing there was no further heavy snowfall."

With Leeds having supporters who travel to every home game from all over the country plus the Republic of Ireland, the stakes were high in terms of making sure there were no wasted journeys.

The club was also determined not to add another fixture to what is looking an increasingly busy schedule, United's schedule from next Saturday including 12 – or 13 if the FA Cup fourth-round tie at Tottenham Hotspur goes to a replay – games in 42 days.

In that respect, manager Grayson was particularly grateful for the hard work of the United ground staff.

He said: "It is a fantastic achievement by everyone at the club to get this game on. They worked tirelessly and it was just a shame we could not reward that hard work with more than a point."