When even penguins couldn’t play at snowbound Stamford Bridge

The heavy state of the pitch at Elland Road for the match between hosts Leeds United and Brighton last Saturday prompted widespread criticism, much of it unwarranted considering the weather.

It admittedly wasn’t in an ideal state which made it hard work for both teams to play constructive football.

But the criticism is somewhat short-sighted. The region experienced heavy snowfall the day before the game and it was remarkable that the ground staff managed to produce a pitch to play on at all.

For this, they should be congratulated, not condemned.

You only had to look at the snow-covered streets of the area outside Elland Road to see what they had to deal with.

The only puzzling decision — and it was quite strange — was that they chose to water the already sodden pitch at half-time, which certainly didn’t help matters.

Apart from that, fans were lucky to see a…