Quote ="sally cinnamon"Nostalgia allows you to be selective about special memories. The reason the WWIII game has gone down in to legend is because of Cullen smashing Goodway. If he hadn't done that, we'd have probably won the game but it would have been forgotten about just like the two times we beat Wigan that season.
The next generation of Wire fans will have their own memories of special games at Wilderspool with a legendary atmosphere:
New Year 1994 against Wigan, full house at Wilderspool, would have been a draw but we lost in the last minute because Cullen went in with his knees and gave Botica a penalty
'Champions for 24 hours' when we beat Sheffield Eagles in the last home game of 1994
Beating Wigan with Alex Murphy as our stand in coach in 1997, Nigel Vagana getting a hat-trick
Langer-inspired second half comeback against a previously unstoppable Bradford in 2000, another game with lots of brawls (also available on the filesharing site)
Home wins against Saints, Wigan and Bradford in a turbulent 2001, including Briers bombing Sullivan, Kidwell turning in to Mal Meninga for one day against Wigan and Rob Smyth scoring in the corner at the end against Bradford
Last game at Wilderspool, Appo's hat-trick against Wakefield in 2003
Andrew Johns debut against Leeds at the HJ in 2005
these are all memories of great atmospheres before we got to the TS era of having an actual winning team to follow.'"
LOL How old do you think I am. I was still young and impressionable in 97.
Winning team? Wire won a fair number of trophies in the mid 80's-mid 90s. Very successful in fact if we include being beaten finalists, which seems to be the yardstick now. I guess this period was when I was 11-23 years old though, I will concede that I was a devout Wire then.
Regal Trophy
Winners 90/1,
Beaten Finalists 86/7 94/5
Challenge Cup
Beaten Finalists 89/90
Premiership
Winners 85/86
Beaten Finalists 86/87
Lancs Cup
Winners 80/81, 82/83, 89/90
Beaten Finalists 85/86, 87/88
So not as if we were devoid of any success during that period, making 11 finals. It's the period 1995-2009 that was barren.
Any how which HWJ games stick in your memory?
