IT WASN'T quite Christmas Day on the battlefields above the First World War trenches.

But the sight of Stoke and Sunderland fans climbing out of their cars to boot a ball around the snow-bound A50 must rank as one of the more surreal kick-abouts ever witnessed.

Back in 1914 the game between British and German soldiers on the Western front was brought to an end by German shelling.

On Saturday, it was snowballs hurled by Stoke reinforcements on the Trentham Road bridge, that sent Sunderland fans fleeing back to their abandoned cars.

We'd started our car, in a blizzard, on Gordon Banks Drive, at ten past five. We finally ditched it at the end of a street, near Uttoxeter, just before 11 O'clock.

A journey that usually takes 25 minutes, had taken almost six hours.

In the first hour we managed to get out of the car park and onto the dual carriageway. Another hour, and we'd reached the Longton slip road, which was strewn with hapless vehicles that had tried (and failed) to struggle up the slope.

As the snow lashed down, we could see brake lights snaking long into the distance. The occasional car passed by on the other side of the crash barrier, wheel-spinning its way through the driving snow.

Then the traffic on our side ground to what seemed like a terminal halt. People started getting out of their cars and jumping into the ankle-deep snow.

An ambulance with lights flashing and siren blaring came by on the pavement in the centre of the road.

Someone produced a football (yellow plastic, of course) and it was there – in the dual carriageway dividing Longton from Normacot – that the impromptu match kicked-off.

Roadside lamps served as floodlights. Other motorists – including scores of lorry drivers and families desperately trying to keep young children entertained – were the crowd.

There were Sunderland fans from Leicester, Newark and Derby. Stoke was represented by supporters from Tean, Meir and Cheadle.

There was a party atmosphere. Even the snowballs thrown by locals from the road bridge above couldn't dampen spirits. One enterprising youth started ferrying snacks down from the nearby Pizza Hut.

Someone said they'd spotted pop star Frankie Sandford (lead singer of girl band The Saturdays) stuck in the queue of cars, further down the A50. Apparently she'd been at The Brit to watch her boyfriend Wayne Bridge, one of Sunderland's subs.

One Stoke fan reckoned he knew the authorities weren't taking the blizzard forecast seriously when the drinks bar in the Q-railing Stand ran out of Bovril at half-time.

At around 9pm we started moving again. By 10pm we'd reached Catchems Corner. The snow had stopped falling and the view was spectacular. It's doubtful whether Normacot has ever looked so pretty.

When we reached the roundabout for the Tean turn-off it became obvious police had closed the dual carriageway running in the opposite direction. A handful of frustrated drivers took this as their cue to race off into the distance on the 'wrong' side of the road. Another bizarre sight on an evening that was full of them.

We arrived home half way through Match of the Day, just in time to see the highlights of the game at The Brit.

Gary Lineker implied the match hadn't been up to much. He'd have been better off watching the highlights of the journey home.