Was thinking if anyone remembers our last Wembley appearance against Sheffield where we lost?
TBH I can't remeber much of it, I was 13 and went to London very early in the morning so we could have a walk around the city - go on the tube at wembley into london and back for the game, first time i'd been to london properly.
Not remember much of the game other than being behind and knowing that we would come out as winners... but time went on and it didnt happen! Felt really gutted that day.
I was there and even before the result it was not like the other times I have been to Wembley. There were hardly any Sheffield fans so the atmosphere was really dull for most of the day. One thing I like about going to Wembley is the banter in the services and on the walk upto the stadium and there was none of it. As much as the RFL try to make out its good for the game to have smaller teams at Wembley, some of the recent attendances have shown that they are far better off with the likes of Wigan and leeds
Gareth Thomas before his first game: "You wanna spend 10 mins getting smashed up by these guys..Big dudes here.."
It was reminiscent of my first Wembley in 1984 when the enjoyment factor had run out for Widnes fans who were then the cup kings and being overwhelmng favourites even though they won they did not seem to enjoy the occasion. Likewise our fans were not overjoyed at the thought of a supposed easy win v Shffield. Unfortunately Sheffield turned up on the day and we I believe had spent most of the week before holidaying and drinking. Even worse the week after we went to Sheffield in the league and absolutely destroyed them. A week to late BUT win or lose the magic had gone for fans and they needed the famine period that followed.
Oddly it never felt anywhere near as bad as the journey back from Watersheddings in 1986? or the defeat in 96? to Salford.
We had a really good day in London, until the game kicked off!!!
But to be fair to them they deserved it. Kear got them so pumped up there was no way they were going to lose.
It was a fantastic example of sports psychology.
Didn't even begrudge the Sheffield fans coming up to us to shake our hands after the match.
As someone has said, the atmosphere was quiet and out of the ordinary Sheffields stand off a Kiwi thug (Watson?) if I remember correctly ran the show, I remember walking off with family, just laughing, as just could not believe what had happened,
One for the "Never to be opened" file!
Useless piece of information - Not that any of the Challenge Cup Final Programmes are worth much but IIRC the programme for the Sheffield final is worth more than any of those from 1984 onwards.
gpartin wrote:I was there and even before the result it was not like the other times I have been to Wembley. There were hardly any Sheffield fans so the atmosphere was really dull for most of the day. One thing I like about going to Wembley is the banter in the services and on the walk upto the stadium and there was none of it. As much as the RFL try to make out its good for the game to have smaller teams at Wembley, some of the recent attendances have shown that they are far better off with the likes of Wigan and leeds
There were very few Sheffield supporters there that day, but everyone else apart from us Wigan supporters were shouting for Sheffield. I remember it well.
I also thought that Dave Watson should have been given the MOM, not Ashton, but I was with some Jambo's that day who were biased towards the ex Whitehaven player.
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