What a day that was. We arrived early and parked next to the ground. Had a walk and then got the bus into the centre. It was packed with rugby fans. You could hardly get into any of the pubs. Train back to the ground and sat on the grass with a few cans. The last ten minutes seemed like ten hours.
They had green garden sheds out side the ground selling programs etc. My dad was quite drunk and pushed a brush handle through the door locking the staff in. He then verbally abused them and started knocking on the door. They had to radio for help as no one would let them out. About ten minutes passed and the Police made and appearance, never seen my dad run so fast.

Got onto the coach around 6.am with 2 x cooler Bags Full of Tinnies & 2 x 2litre bottles of Jukesy's Special Mix! (Twosevenzero & 21-12 drank most of it!) and the other 9 in my group all had 10-20 cans apiece!

The tickets said no alcohol allowed and the coach driver said the same!
We got to Shevington roundabout and the drivers changed and the new one said "Go on then, have a couple but make sure no-one sees You!"
Nothing but fields to the left & right for 250 miles so we got the Drink out!

No-one on the coach apart from our "Party of 10!" had brought any so they all started to try & buy some off us! We let them have a couple each on the proviso we got double back on the way home! They all agreed and they duly obliged!

As the liquid started to flow I took a bit of stick as the only person on the coach who was certain we would win! No amount of discussion (despite the Drink) would convince them otherwise!

UNTIL!

We got to some services around 9am and the place was absolutley packed with Stains fans! Out of the 40 or so coaches only 5 or 6 were Wigan as most of the Wigan coaches didn't want to stop and have the Stains Fans Gloating at them!

All you could see were Stains fans laughing and Joking and regailed in Fancy Dress!

As I got back to the coach I stood on the steps of the coach and welcomed all our Supporters back on with words something like this :-

At the Top of My voice!

"Take a Look at em, their here for a Party Not a Rugby Game! They think they've won it already!
Let's get stuck into these Scouse Barsteward3 and make em work for it, they don't like Working for anything!"

We sat back in our seats and I can remember As if it were yesterday a Guy who I had given a can to about 3 or 4 rows in front of me turned and said "Your Right, were going to win aren't we!"

I stood up and said "Too Fing right we are!" and the whole coach erupted!

We got to Edinburgh at 10.30ish and went to a pub near were the coach was parked, about a mile from the ground but the door was locked!
I knocked on the door a couple of times and the landlord answered and said we aren't opening till 1pm!

I told him to open up early and we would make it worthwhile with a quick £20 back hander, he said wait there, came back 2 mins later and said he had persuaded one of his staff to come in early in 10 mins time and he would accomodate us!

At 12pm there must have been 300 in and there was touch rugby in the Beer Garden!
The landlord opened up a Private Bar for a select few, Gave me the £20 back and bought us 2 x rounds of Free drinks he had made that much money!

As for the game! 80 mins (You could actually say 120 mins as 1/2 hour before the game I had never felt as Wound up plus half time!) of pure Tension!

I remember looking at the clock and seeing 7 mins to go, there were about 3 sets and I looked again and the clock hadn't gone down, in fact i'm sure it went Backwards!

If you look after both Dallas & Lams tried on the BBC coverage there's a raving lunatic jumping up and down with a contorted face screaming at the cameras! (If you can lip read It's worth having a look at what I was screaming!)
As the Hooter went I have never felt a release of tension like it!

I was so drained I couldn't stand and sat with my head in my hand for 5 mins!

We got back to the Coach and set off and with our Drink Flowing freely Including the Jukesy Special Mix!

The Karaoke started However There was a Young Lad on the Coach who was making an Ar5e of himself by swearing constantly and kept taking the Mic off people as they were singing (We nicknamed him Pie & Peas as that's all he could sing!)

I asked the coach driver to pull over and asked the Young un to get off with Me!

Plan A
I told him a few things and said if he got back on and sat down & shut up we wouldn't throw him off and he agreed!

At which point I put into action PlanB
I asked him did he want a quick whisky to show there were no hard feelings! After 4 or 5 "Large Ones" we didn't here from again until we Threw him off, still asleep ,at Hindley on the Way Home!

We stopped at 2 x services on the way Home and you can guess what! Not a Sintelliner to be seen!

When we got back I went to my Brother in laws 21st and stayed up drinking till about 5am!

Got up the day after about 9 and watched the game still drunk about 3 times!

"Best day of my life"! Bar None!

That just sounds wrong

God what a day that was

went to the match completely sober after drinking far too much alcohol the night before,sat in the game shaking for 80 minutes and one point hid in the toilets for 10 minutes because I couldn't cope with the tension. When the final whistle went I just burst into tears finally it was all over. no wigan fan enjoyed that game until it was over!!!!!

best moment of the day......seeing Jonny Vegas' face drop when he saw 20 wigan fans walking towards the pub he was outside after the game.

One of the best days of my life.

Can remember the doom and gloom all the way up on the coaches, at the stops we were outnumbered by Saints coaches with smug supporters all pointing to window decorations proclaiming 19-0 following their success earlier in the season at KR. They had the feeling that all their team had to do was turn up - unfortunately so did most of our fans, because our end of the stadium was nowhere near full in comparison. Before the game I was really depressed about the whole thing, expecting a heavy defeat and freezing cold due to the swirling wind around the empty seats to the sides - how my emotions changed over the 80 mins. Heroes the lot of em - especially Rads.

The trip home couldn't have been sweeter seeing all those glum faces with our coach driver slowing down and repassing the Saints coaches numerous times to allow us to return the favour from the trip up. Fantastic.

Maybe its a good omen that I'm again not looking forward to the game on Saturday, but I think that has more to do with having to sit with my Saints supporting wife and her family rather than any reservations about our chances.

The only downside of the day for me (other than the result) - I couldn't believe how bad the turn out from Wigan was for a cup final against Saints.

Agreed, but the ones that didn't bother were the ones that missed out - only themselves to blame. Sometimes loyalty pays off in the face of adversity.

I was one of the few who tipped Wigan to win. If you remember Saints had beaten us 19 - 0 at KR on the Good Friday, but Wigan had bombed three tries (Julian O'Neil twice should have passed when he had support)

I was filling the car up on Warrington Road onthe Thurday night and a fan pulled up at the pumps who I recognised, but did not know personally.

"How are we going to do" I said.
"Win" he said, "We should have beaten them on Good Friday"


I grew another six inches (to 5ft 2" just before the smart arses say anything)

So Friday me and mini drive up to Dumbar where we were staying, and our hotel is full of Skints supporters who took great delight in telling us what was going to happen.

When I told them about Good Friday, they just laughed.

On Friday we caught the train into Edinburgh, Liam respondent in his kilt, and met up with our mob, who although staying in Dunbar were only traveling up that morning.

We found a bar near Tynecastle and sunk "quite a few" arriving just in time for Abide with Me.

The last 20 minutes of that game I swear took 3 hours. Ian Millard and Eamonn McMannuss faces at the end of the game were pictures to behold, but not as good as those Skints fans who scurried out of the Hotel as we returned with big I told you grins on our faces.

The drive home next day was superb, big smiles and courteous waves to our Merseyside friends.

Too right - they missed a treat.

Same again this weekend I hope - shame there isn't a trophy on the line this time. Although I think I aged 20 years in the last 10 mins in 2002, so its probably for the best.