Grand Final 2023

[the pieman]

now for a gripe, and its nowt to do with the game

went to the game with my wife (2nd game Wigan game after watching the semi last week) and my daughters

Met in Manchester as my youngest is at Chester Uni and was coming with one of her friends, all good at this point

paid for a barge to the ground which we nearly missed after being in Manchester from 1pm . partly to blame is the 1 every 10 minute free bus services (50 minutes stood in the rain waiting for it). Poorly advertised barge, so taking that up with the company as we walked past it twice

get to the ground and we are in a 100 yard queue trying to get into the upper north stand. After 20 mins of queueing, a steward decides to walk up as we get to the front to tell my wife that her hand bag is too big. A bag with a purse and phone in it, and that she cant take it into the game, so she stands to one side and said she didnt want to go in (we'd got very wet in Manchester when trying to get to the barge, and i was p****d off that we couldnt find the barge and the guy wasnt answering when i phoned

so i just said, put your fleece on and put the bag underneath it and we got back in the queue. As they searched my i just pushed her by the security guard and into the turnstyle, not perfect, but the security is ridiculous (seen another post about a little girl having her flag taken off her)

anyway after the game, we go to catch the barge, gate locked, no answer on phone, despite being able to still see the barges parked up. Go and ask a steward why the gate is locked and how i get through to the barge, not a clue and absolutely useless (and repeat for the next 2stewards), although one did tell me to walk around over the next bridge and then back to where i had come from, thanks

managed to get hold of the barge, explained we've been trying to get hold of him for 10 minutes and the gate is locked. go through the hotel and we are still there. 2 minutes later and onto the canal, no barge, he'd decided to bugger off and leave us all

walk back into manchester along canal. luckily dry and we'd won, so wasnt that bad

get into manchester to find all trains back to Hindley / Wigan had been cancelled - thanks alot Northern, you really know how to p*** us fans off. No train until 23.15. Luckily my youngest had no issues getting back to Chester

anyway we had to get a train to Bolton (no bus then for another 45 minutes), so £20 in a taxi

bloody good job we won the game, or i would have been a right miserable git all day yesterday

[pearsy]

Did the new cameras catch any action ?on sky

[Firestarter]

now for a gripe, and its nowt to do with the game

went to the game with my wife (2nd game Wigan game after watching the semi last week) and my daughters

Met in Manchester as my youngest is at Chester Uni and was coming with one of her friends, all good at this point

paid for a barge to the ground which we nearly missed after being in Manchester from 1pm . partly to blame is the 1 every 10 minute free bus services (50 minutes stood in the rain waiting for it). Poorly advertised barge, so taking that up with the company as we walked past it twice

get to the ground and we are in a 100 yard queue trying to get into the upper north stand. After 20 mins of queueing, a steward decides to walk up as we get to the front to tell my wife that her hand bag is too big. A bag with a purse and phone in it, and that she cant take it into the game, so she stands to one side and said she didnt want to go in (we'd got very wet in Manchester when trying to get to the barge, and i was p****d off that we couldnt find the barge and the guy wasnt answering when i phoned

so i just said, put your fleece on and put the bag underneath it and we got back in the queue. As they searched my i just pushed her by the security guard and into the turnstyle, not perfect, but the security is ridiculous (seen another post about a little girl having her flag taken off her)

anyway after the game, we go to catch the barge, gate locked, no answer on phone, despite being able to still see the barges parked up. Go and ask a steward why the gate is locked and how i get through to the barge, not a clue and absolutely useless (and repeat for the next 2stewards), although one did tell me to walk around over the next bridge and then back to where i had come from, thanks

managed to get hold of the barge, explained we've been trying to get hold of him for 10 minutes and the gate is locked. go through the hotel and we are still there. 2 minutes later and onto the canal, no barge, he'd decided to bugger off and leave us all

walk back into manchester along canal. luckily dry and we'd won, so wasnt that bad

get into manchester to find all trains back to Hindley / Wigan had been cancelled - thanks alot Northern, you really know how to p*** us fans off. No train until 23.15. Luckily my youngest had no issues getting back to Chester

anyway we had to get a train to Bolton (no bus then for another 45 minutes), so £20 in a taxi

bloody good job we won the game, or i would have been a right miserable git all day yesterday

Yes pian it was me with the 7 year old. I forgot to add they complained about my missus bag too but after i kicked off about the flag another steward came over.He told us too tell the chaps at the turnstiles that she is diabetic…. Also deansgate train station was shut so we had to get an uber home.new venue time i think

[moto748]

Sorry to hear of the grief people suffered, spoiling what should have been a great day. I couldn't help muse that the difference was night and day compared to the CCF at Tottenham. That was a memory I will cherish. This, not so much.

[DaveO]

now for a gripe, and its nowt to do with the game

went to the game with my wife (2nd game Wigan game after watching the semi last week) and my daughters

Met in Manchester as my youngest is at Chester Uni and was coming with one of her friends, all good at this point

paid for a barge to the ground which we nearly missed after being in Manchester from 1pm . partly to blame is the 1 every 10 minute free bus services (50 minutes stood in the rain waiting for it). Poorly advertised barge, so taking that up with the company as we walked past it twice

get to the ground and we are in a 100 yard queue trying to get into the upper north stand. After 20 mins of queueing, a steward decides to walk up as we get to the front to tell my wife that her hand bag is too big. A bag with a purse and phone in it, and that she cant take it into the game, so she stands to one side and said she didnt want to go in (we'd got very wet in Manchester when trying to get to the barge, and i was p****d off that we couldnt find the barge and the guy wasnt answering when i phoned

so i just said, put your fleece on and put the bag underneath it and we got back in the queue. As they searched my i just pushed her by the security guard and into the turnstyle, not perfect, but the security is ridiculous (seen another post about a little girl having her flag taken off her)

anyway after the game, we go to catch the barge, gate locked, no answer on phone, despite being able to still see the barges parked up. Go and ask a steward why the gate is locked and how i get through to the barge, not a clue and absolutely useless (and repeat for the next 2stewards), although one did tell me to walk around over the next bridge and then back to where i had come from, thanks

managed to get hold of the barge, explained we've been trying to get hold of him for 10 minutes and the gate is locked. go through the hotel and we are still there. 2 minutes later and onto the canal, no barge, he'd decided to bugger off and leave us all

walk back into manchester along canal. luckily dry and we'd won, so wasnt that bad

get into manchester to find all trains back to Hindley / Wigan had been cancelled - thanks alot Northern, you really know how to p*** us fans off. No train until 23.15. Luckily my youngest had no issues getting back to Chester

anyway we had to get a train to Bolton (no bus then for another 45 minutes), so £20 in a taxi

bloody good job we won the game, or i would have been a right miserable git all day yesterday

Yes pian it was me with the 7 year old. I forgot to add they complained about my missus bag too but after i kicked off about the flag another steward came over.He told us too tell the chaps at the turnstiles that she is diabetic…. Also deansgate train station was shut so we had to get an uber home.new venue time i think

Nightmare. We were in that queue as well if it was for entrance N47 and had a similar experience re bags. For some reason my son who came over from Leeds decided to bring a small rucksack - and I mean small to carry his coat, headphones and phone charger. If you looked at the pre match email it tells you what you can take in and small bags are supposed to be OK if they are smaller than a certain size. His was.

No dice so off we went to the bag drop which once we found it over a footbridge to a car park cost him £5 to drop it off.

Back to the queue which was now much longer, at least 100 yards like you said. Luckily one of the gate stewards comes to our end of the queue and said if we were for N47 follow him and all he did was take us around the other side of the same entrance. Authorised queue jumping! Just as well because despite being there in plenty of time we took our seats 10 minutes before kick off. I doubt we’d have made it on time for kick off if he hadn’t done that.

Here is another whinge. The match day program. It’s full of errors! I have only started reading it today and apparently there is a team called Huddersfield Tigers. The grammar is all over the place (basic stuff not a anything fancy) and under the Season review for the Dragons the “Rising Star” player is Tiaki Chan but the text is a carbon copy of what is written about “Key Man” Sam Tomkins.

So not only have they highlighted a rising star who is actually leaving (which was announced ages ago) and is joining Wigan they didn’t even include the correct bio.

That’s as far as I have got but this is so unprofessional.

[the pieman]

Yes DaveO, it was N47, just poorly managed by the stewards but we didnt find the one with some common sense .

I noticed as i was sorting out the handbag, that there was no-one on the other side of the queue, so all of us were queueing towards the East side, but virtually nobody on the other side, and the stewards hadnt the sense to keep moving us along

anyway, i had my proper gripe, i've complained to the barge company and northern rail this morning, and not going to let them spoil the weekend (or i've tried not to )

to add some positivity to the weekend i would recommend Victoria Taps thats just opened at the far end of Victoria Station, good choice of ales and lagers, and The Bay Horse Tavern, absolutely cracking couple of pints in there (the fish and chips looked bang on too, but that was me checking out what food they were dishing out)

firestarter, i was aware of the closure at 6pm of Deansgate and had checked all the trains when i booked our tickets on the way there, nothing at that point cancelled and all trains running. Trainline, also said that Deansgate was shut from 6pm, not ideal given we would all be coming from that side. Luckily we were dropping my young one off at Piccadilly to go back to Chester, and saw the alternative to Bolton, which was about best we could do given the 2 hours of cancellations for all trains to Hindley / Wigan from Vic. re flag, if it was my little one, and we'd just spent £10 (guessing how much you paid) at the ground, i would have stuck it up the stewards arse and told him where to go , given the are openly selling them for kids to take into the ground

[Firestarter]

Yes DaveO, it was N47, just poorly managed by the stewards but we didnt find the one with some common sense .

I noticed as i was sorting out the handbag, that there was no-one on the other side of the queue, so all of us were queueing towards the East side, but virtually nobody on the other side, and the stewards hadnt the sense to keep moving us along

anyway, i had my proper gripe, i've complained to the barge company and northern rail this morning, and not going to let them spoil the weekend (or i've tried not to )

to add some positivity to the weekend i would recommend Victoria Taps thats just opened at the far end of Victoria Station, good choice of ales and lagers, and The Bay Horse Tavern, absolutely cracking couple of pints in there (the fish and chips looked bang on too, but that was me checking out what food they were dishing out)

firestarter, i was aware of the closure at 6pm of Deansgate and had checked all the trains when i booked our tickets on the way there, nothing at that point cancelled and all trains running. Trainline, also said that Deansgate was shut from 6pm, not ideal given we would all be coming from that side. Luckily we were dropping my young one off at Piccadilly to go back to Chester, and saw the alternative to Bolton, which was about best we could do given the 2 hours of cancellations for all trains to Hindley / Wigan from Vic. re flag, if it was my little one, and we'd just spent £10 (guessing how much you paid) at the ground, i would have stuck it up the stewards arse and told him where to go , given the are openly selling them for kids to take into the ground

Yes N47 also.Obviously we wasnt aware of the deansgate closure along with a lot of others.Definitely terrible timing but only cost 23 quid in the uber

[moto748]

I was in N47 too.

Right, which one of you was the bloke who insisted in clambering across peoples' seats en route to the bar/loo THREE TIMES in EACH half?

I didn't dare risk the trains, that's why I got the coach. Not brilliant, but I was home by about 10 ppm.

[josie andrews]

I was in N47 too.

Right, which one of you was the bloke who insisted in clambering across peoples' seats en route to the bar/loo THREE TIMES in EACH half?

I didn't dare risk the trains, that's why I got the coach. Not brilliant, but I was home by about 10 ppm.

Aye & if he’d done that & come to my row to save getting folk up on his own he’d have had to go back! really annoys me that

[DaveO]

Luckily we were dropping my young one off at Piccadilly to go back to Chester, and saw the alternative to Bolton, which was about best we could do given the 2 hours of cancellations for all trains to Hindley / Wigan from Vic. re flag, if it was my little one, and we'd just spent £10 (guessing how much you paid) at the ground, i would have stuck it up the stewards arse and told him where to go , given the are openly selling them for kids to take into the ground

I was on the 21:44 train back to Chester so possibly the same train?

The train before that was going to Blackpool North and stopping at places like Leyland so was rammed with Wigan fans. They had all got sat down then three cyclists turned up wanting to get the their bikes on and the Guard made a couple of Wigan lads give up their folding seats so the bikes would fit. There weren’t happy…