Reeling from watching Saints win the GF again i thought a follow up to the 'best moments' thread was in order.

1998 Challenge Cup final...... say no more

The Ben Flower incident. Completely ruined a game i thought we were nailed on to win.

St Helens, Leeds and Wakefield defeats although they were completely depleted sides we fielded.

Take your pick of the last 3 years results under the Lam regime

Announcing we were leaving Central Park

Jason Robinson leaving, he was and still is my favourite all time player.


Not relating to Wigan but Ryan Hall scoring a perfectly sound try against Australia in the dying minutes and the Aussie video ref coming up with the most ridiculous reason to not allow it. That still really winds me up.

Was it not Ryan Hall?

Yes it was. Silly me. McGilvarry was getting all the plaudits from the Aussie press. Got my wires crossed. :- Edited

Thought I'd missed another one for a minute



Losing to Salford in 96. Couldn't get my head around not going to wembley.

You're right about Flower, and we should still have won it.

This whole season has been a particularly new low for me, genuinely the least enjoyable season I’ve ever had watching Wigan. Sadly it’s not only Wigan that are setting the standards low, the whole league has been boring. I used to get excited and look forward to watch Wigan games live and any and all games that were shown on tv that week, now I will sometimes even forget one is on.

Peter Norbury, Mike Nolan, Eric Hughes, Doc Murray, Paul Koloi, Shem Tatupu, Ian Sherratt, Brett Goldspink. I think this was the last era we had the last significant drop off across the entire club.

I've always wondered why on earth Eric Hughes was appointed. A baffling one.

Going way back in the past again, to 1966 when we got battered by Saints at Wembley. Our hooker Colin Clarke was suspended and this was the time of contested scrums, so Wigan literally never had the ball. That clever Mr Murphy also utilised some very negative tactics to keep Saints in possession. If I remember right it was made even worse because we’d sold our other hooker , Bill Sayer to Saints not long before. There’s been worse performances since, I’m sure, but when you’re only 9 it’s very difficult to put these things in perspective, which is perhaps why, after all these years, it still sticks in my craw.

The mid/late seventies without a shadow of doubt!

No winning of trophies, poor signings, numerous coaches, relegation and a decline in attendances to as low as 2,500

Hope the club never declines to that level again!

This for me too!

Being at Post Office Rd, and getting relegated.

Getting slaughtered by Bradford in the 2001 Grand Final. It was the first time I saw us lose a game in person.

Losing 70-0 and 75-0 in consecutive weeks v Leeds and Saints in 2005.

Getting knocked out of the play offs by Salford a couple of years ago.

Watching this year's side bore me to death.

It was at Cas when we got relegated.

My mistake.

2 words......Sheffield Eagles

The day I joined RL forums, I was a happy normal person with love for everyone, I was content with finding cracks out from reading Leaguer and League Express and watching Boots n All with the fantastic Eddie and Stevo, Oh how I wish I could go back

This is up there definitely.

Either the Pat Richards try against Wakefield in 06 being disallowed (I think everyone was convinced that had sealed our fate) or the realisation this year that my interest in the club and sport is not what it was. Hopefully only temporary.

The late 60's and early 70's wasn't great either. The only highlight of this period was Bill 'Sash' Ashurst . I wish we had Bill today, he was a great forward and we would kick the other teams to death with his ability to kick 40/20's for fun . I remember his family shouting for 'Bill' too at Central park.

Another grim memory was when we got thumped by Leeds at Station Road, Swinton, in a Challenge cup semi final, IIRC 1968 . Billy Boston went in for a try, and it was deemed he had stepped in touch. The linesman was Arnold Bagnall, who was also from Rochdale, as were we. Rather terribly some years later, we became related to Mr.Bagnall through a marriage . My old Dad, God bless him, had an hard time being civil with him he said. 'Billy' was my Dads hero in RL.

The GF in 2001 was an awful battering

as a fan i the losses in 2005 were tolerable as both Leeds and Saints were so far ahead of us at the time, and we had been dishing out losses like that for many years ourselves. I argued with a leeds fan as they were calling us for staying and applauding the team off the pitch, and i did the same the following week. Sometimes in sport you have to accept that even the best that the players can deliver is not good enough, and at that time we werent good enough and got battered by superior sides

one game that stands out for me, although not particularly a worst moment was the Bradford away game in the fog, which clearly shouldnt have been played as you couldnt see a bloody thing

. Spoke with Nobby a few years later and he said that from a Bradford perspective it was glorious sunshine out there as they were playing well and Wigan had started the season poorly, so they wanted the 2 points in the bag

April 1968 v Wakefield away. We got beat, but watching Billy Boston leave the field for the last time as a Wigan player was heartbreaking. However to see the guard of honour by the players of both teams and the applause from both sets of fans says everything about the great man.
The word legend is often overused but definitely not in Billys case.

Off the field it was probably the two times we were punished for salary cap breaches. Every cloud though it signalled the end of Whelan's time with us.

Sometimes you have to put fan rivalries aside; The vast majority of Saints fans have been in that position (myself included), and have been incredibly blessed to have been pulled back from the brink that was the KC era. A cynic might suggest Saints fans enjoyment of the game was directly correlated with us challenging again, but the reality is the performances on the pitch during the KC era were only a symptom of a far bigger problem within the club. Lack of communication (and when there was, it was almost adversarial to the fans - we were called sheep for complaining about the style of play after all), obviously poor signings that were clearly not going to work out (whilst being hailed as the next fan favourite, next Jamie Lyon etc) and just a bone idle sense from the club that they know best and everyone who doubts that is wrong. Holbrook was a breath of fresh air, not because of the results or the style of play, but because he engaged the fans again, didn't treat us like idiots, and really brought the club back from the brink.

I really hope Peet is able to give Wigan fans a similar transformation in sense and interest, there really aren't too many clubs who can take 20k to a final at the moment, and losing another one wouldn't be good for anyone. Though if results on the pitch can stay the same that would be great (okay I couldn't put the fan rivalry aside entirely but almost

)

IIRC, I seem to recall we watched Billy in at least one game when he had signed for Blackpool Borough. That must have been late 1968 ?