2007 was one of our most frustrating years, the pattern of high hopes spiralling away mid season was becoming a familiar pattern but the lows this year were really bad, we flirted with a relegation dogfight at one point before a brief spell of playing the sort of attacking rugby which used to have Phil Clarke talking us up as the best team outside Saints when on form got us back to mid table.

The season was played out against the backdrop of Cullen’s contract, which was up at the end of the year and for most of the year we didn’t know who our coach for 2008 would be. Adrian Morley had been our big off season signing but it took him a while to get his season going after suffering two serious facial injuries which put him out for a while. There were a few “I told you sos” from people who had said Morley was past his best and injury prone but he hit good form by the end of the year and was GBs best forward in the internationals that winter.

We beat Wigan at the JJB in Round 1, and in comparison to recent years we made a decent start to the season, we won five of our first eight including beating last year’s Grand Finalists Hull in another of those last minute Briers drop goal games. That said there were still some signs for concern that things weren’t right. We got beaten badly at Saints (again) and lost at Wakefield (again) and whilst the optimists amongst our fans always had reasons to explain the defeat (it was going well until x got injured and it changed the game) the warning signs were there.

Then we spiralled into our worst run since the dark days of 2002, in a two month period we won only once – in the Millennium Magic against relegation bound Salford. Confidence was low, the pressure was on the coach and team, and opponents turned up to the HJ like vultures knowing we were easy pickings. The worst one was when a seriously under strength Harlequins came to the HJ and played us off the park on Sky, we didn’t put up a whimper of resistance. When you looked at their team sheet and compared it to ours packed full of internationals, it was embarrassing. Through May and June we were 10th, hovering around 2 or 3 points above Salford at the bottom, which was basically where we were under Plange. We still had no announcement on who would be the coach next season, but Jimmy Lowes arrived as assistant from Salford.

Out of the gloom came Kevin Penny, he came into the team at around our lowest point, and scored twice at Headingley, we were desperate for something good to cling to so we all got excited about him then, but nobody could have predicted he would end the season in the SL Dream Team. He got 12 tries in 12 games, some of them were real scorchers, and he brought some excitement to watching Wire again with his raw shock pace and agility at full speed. People were going on about him as the new Offiah which was stupid and always setting him up for a fall, he’s had a tough time since, but in 2007 he lifted us when we were in need of a boost.

Penny’s scoring run took the shackles off everybody. Bridge got a hat-trick at Huddersfield, Penny got a fantastic hat-trick against Salford, Briers got a hat-trick while we scored 60 at Hull KR, then we smashed Wigan and Sky’s golden boy Trent Barrett and suddenly we had gone up to 5th in the league. The board gave Cullen a new 2 year deal, signed Penny up to a long term deal to keep him away from interest in union.

A close win over Challenge Cup finalists Catalans made sure we were going into the last three rounds of the season basically needing 2 wins from 3 to make the playoffs. We lost a crunch game at home to Huddersfield on Sky, who leapfrogged us into the top six and left us needing to win at Saints to stay in the race, which we couldn’t do. We finished 7th, a point behind Huddersfield.

Henry Fa’afili was top scorer in the league in his last year with us, it was the end of the road for few of the other familiar faces from Cullen’s era, Grose, Leikvoll, Sullivan, Wainwright. Jon Clarke had the best season of his career and ended up playing hooker for GB in a 3-0 series win over the Kiwis under Tony Smith. At the time it was seen as easy pickings against a weak NZ side but looking back now that Kiwi side looks quite decent, it was basically the World Cup winning team of a year later plus some big fish who missed the World Cup – Asotasi, Moi Moi, Frank Pritchard, Hape etc.

Typical 2007 team: Reardon/Grose; Fa’afili, Martin Gleeson, Johnson, Penny; Bridge, Briers; Rauhihi, Clarke, P Wood; Westwood, Morley; V Anderson (Parker, Leikvoll, Mark Gleeson, Wainwright)

So, memories of 2007...

Freezing my balls of at the JJB in round one. when it was snowing, windy and just very unpleasent.

The year this forum turned nasty.

The season I turned from a Cullenite, to a pessimist.

I just knew it wasn't going to happen under Cullen.

It would have been interesting to see the Wiganers' reactions if we had got the guy we wanted as coach.

I have never been as cold in my whole life as I was that night. Snowing horizontally! Cracking night.

That night in Wigan was a blur for me. I'd just finished college on the Friday afternoon and met with a few mates down at Bank Quay to find 20/30 people all under age drinking on the train and packed into the train. Getting back we could only afford a taxi to Winwick so I had to walk for an hour the rest of the way home.

It was a good night back in my wilder days.

Such a pity I don't remember much else of that season, and not because I was intoxicated. It was probably the least interesting in the last decade in the way we went about things. We were average for most of it, while showing only glimpses of both brilliance and disastrous. The highlight for me would be in Perpignan, where a picture of me topless wearing a beret hat and my wire top sticking out of a pair of flower shorts was taken whilst holding a beer next to the canal. Such a boring season from a wire point of view.

Reading that Sally, it still baffles me how the board stuck with Cullen & didn't give him the heave ho. I know we had injuries, but the style we were playing was garbage with no confidence.

Kev Penny was the highlight for me..I'm still convinced he can play a big part as a strike winger for this club...

The Hudds defeat at home where we needed the win to make the playoffs..Sickened me to the stomach no fight no character..Beaten by a team that wanted it more, truly awful...

Another pretty bad season, but it showed what penny could do on a rugby field without half the idiots in the stadium blaming him for everything that was going wrong. I just wish we had brought a new coach in then to iron out his weaknesses whilst he was playing in the first team with sky high confidence. Surely there is no wire fan who would want to sell him when they think back to that season?

On reflection I don't think we stood still in 2007, if anything we went backwards. Both 2007 and 2008 were fairly similar years with reasonable runs of form followed by a period of absolute disaster. Chester Wire is right, it was the first year that some on this Forum turned very nasty, with some very stupid, ill informed and highly offensive postings.

Fought our way to Fourth but gave it all away...

Lost some great players this year as well!!!
Fa'afili, Grose and Lightbulb...

We lost a lot of players because we were clearing the decks for who was coming in, we made four pretty big signings for 2008 which is probably why there was still a split debate on whether we should or shouldn't keep Cullen. I reckon most people had realised by this point that we weren't going to win trophies with the current squad under Cullen but the primrose and blue romantics were thinking that our squad in 2008 was going to be so good that even with Cullen in charge we still had a good chance of winning something and it would be nice to do it with him at the helm.

The two big catches of the 2007 signing-season were Michael Monaghan and Matt King, Monaghan who was the form player of the NRL and was being chased by us and Hull, King was supposedly chased by Wigan, Bradford and Harlequins, we were mentioned in some of the Aussie papers but I thought that was a case of us being linked with everybody. I remember thinking we might have a chance with Monaghan but didn't think we'd get King as well - and we topped it off by getting Louis Anderson and Chris Hicks (research on Manly and NRL forums showed that Hicks was very well regarded in the NRL).

Those signings really did make everybody stand up and take notice because on top of a squad already containing lots of big names it looked like we could have the strike power to smash everybody particularly as we were expecting Penny and King to devastate.

So even after we had had another disappointing season, most of the off season talk was about just how good we would be in 2008 and most of our fans reckoned we would be at least in the top 3. Because we were always making good signings there was always a bit of a feel good factor about the club during Cullen's years, that yes this season is not what we expected but when we get so and so on board we will kick ass next time around.

2007 really brought to the fore the club motto of "Next year is our year" - looking back at a team with Morley, Martin Gleeson, Briers, Fa'afili, Grose, Penny, Paul Johnson etc should have been knocking on the door to the top four not missing the play-offs. Players were played out of position, number 1 being Adrian Morley the NRL's bext prop for the previous couple of seasons playing in the 2nd row. We also had stints with Martin Gleeson (at the time possibly the country's best centre) playing at 13, with Henry Fa'afili (the league's top try scorer) playing at 6 in at least one game! If anyone wanted proof then that our coach had lost the plot then it was there for all to see - when injuries struck players should have been picked in their rightful positions with youngsters coming through in their positions not shuffle the deck so noone knew where they were playing!

Standout performances probably Wigan twice & demolition of Salford at home. Other than that as others have said a poor & forgettable season where only the money of Simon Moranavich kept us hopeful for the future...

Good too see it's still about us...but who did you want?

The guy we turned down a few years previously.

I think that might be a myth, that Shaun Edwards was in for the job in 2001 and we said sorry mate, you just missed out to Anderson and Plange, but we'll keep your CV on file just in case any opportunities arise in the future

Fair does. A bit of poor judgement on your boards part if I'm honest, but I guess this was when he was completly unproven as a coach? So understandable really.

I'd completly forgotten about David Plange lol, had to google him and everything.

He must have been telling lies in his foreword for Chris Joynt's autobiography.

One of my favorite away days at Wigan that was, immense performance had everything that game. Morley's injury, freak weather abit of biff and tension. Great game.

The way Penny burst on to the scene was great, I've seen nothing like it. They way he captured everyone's imagination, he brought so much confidence back into the side, hopefully he will get back to they way he played sooner or later this year or next under TS.

A lot of nasty things and rumours were posted on here about Cullen especially around the time he with given leave of absence by the club for personal reasons.

You'd hope that there will be a lot of apologies appearing but don't hold your breath.

The silence from some is deafening.

Not read that, what did he say? What did it have to do with Joynt, did Edwards have him lined up to join us if he got the job?

Foreword from The Quiet Man by Shaun Edwards:

[codeAt one stage back in 2001 when it looked likely I would become Warrington Wolves' coach, my first thought was about recruiting a captain.
I needed a player I could rely on, who would be a shining example to the younger players in his attitude, toughness, skill level and the way he conducts his life off the field.
The first person I thought of was Chris Joynt.[/code

wigan away 1st round... absolutley freezing but worth it as we beat wigan. also, kev penny burst on the scene.