Having been fortunate to watch hundreds of Saints matches over the years I had a conversation with a very good friend in the pub on Wednesday night and we exchanged games and I came up with the best one I have ever witnessed.

Games mentioned where as follows

Saints vs Wigan (1997 Challenge Cup)
Saints vs Bradford (1996 Challenge Cup Final)
Saints vs Bradford (2000 Play Off Wide to West)
Saints vs Wigan (2000 Grand Final)
Saints vs Bradford (2002 Grand Final)
Saints vs Brisbane (2007 WCC)

My favourite game off alltime was Saints vs Brisbane 2001 and I remember the day clearly!

I woke up at 7am stupidly exicted about the day ahead. It was my mates 18th and we went to Liverpool for the day. I was hoping that doing this would take my mind off the game which I can honestly say it didnt. We where coming up against the best the Aussies could offer and I was eagerly antipating the game!

I found out what the team was and my confidence grew but I was abit worried that we had very little impact off the bench.

Wellens
Hoppe
Iro
Newlove
Sullivan
Martyn
Long
Nickle
Cunningham
Fairleigh
Joynt (c)
Shiels
Sculthorpe

Bench

Stewart
Jonkers
Stankevitch
Matautia

In the early stages of the game I felt comfortable and we where matching Brisbane apart from a few silly errors here and there. Berrigan scored but I still felt we could win the game. Paul Sculthorpe scored the equaliser after Darren Lockyer spilled the ball pressured by Longy. Phillip Lee scored a great try and we went in 12-6 down. I thought we played well in the First Half and looked we could compete with Brisbane. Second Half started disaterously as Brad Meyers crashed over. By this time I was think we where finished to be honest. I thought Brisbane would shut down the game and score a couple of more trys at least but boy how wrong I was!!! Longy brought us back with a well worked try and great pass from David Fairleigh and now we where coming back with a charge. The hail started coming down from the Bolton sky and my dad said "These bloody Aussies wont like this we will win son mark my words" I hate people saying things like "We will win" as I allways feel jinxed when somebody says it!!! I remember the next set well Longy put Newlove through the hole and as ever our Captain Chris Joynt was in support to dive in near to the sticks! I remember screaming at Gordan Tallis after he caught Joynt late after crashing in after he scored which I got a good old clip round the earhole from my mother for my chioce of language lol! Then we matched Brisbane set for set and we got a penalty with eight minutes remaining. I remember Vila Matautia crashing on to a short ball from Martyn and I thought he'd just sneaked over. At this time tears where coming in my eyes as I thought we were on the verge of something truly special. Scully slotted over the drop goal and the crowd went into raptures as you can expect. Longy sealed victory with a drop goal around two minutes from the end. Darren Lockyer hit the ball straight dead and my dad said "I told you son!!!"

That is my favourite ever game but be good to hear some of your experiences!

The 41-6 in '92 and both the Challenge Cup Final and clinching the title in '96. Nothing else, not even the WCC wins or Wide to West, could ever compare with the magnitude of the achievement that those 3 games represented at the time nor with the elation that they caused at the time.

There is one particular match which stuck in my mind, I was a teenager at the time, think it might have been in the mid 70's.
Wigan v Saints at central park, score was something like Wigan 18 Saints 54, that game produced the massive Wigan Walk of all time.
After 50 mins thousand and thousands of wigan fans dissapeared from the ground and with 15 mins to go the West Stand was less than half full.
Don,t know if any of the older members can remember this one.

Memories............ All Memories

Two games for me, the 96 challenge cup final, when we finally emerged from the pies shadow and earlier we could win. What a great atmosphere, probably the best for any game that I have attended. And the 2001 WCC v Brisbane, fie no other reason than it was the last game my dad knew about, he listened to it from his bed in willow brook hospice just a couple of weeks behore he died, and even though he knew he only had days to live, he was delighted that saints were the best team in the world. I went to the game and for some reason got the start time wrong and was in the reebok an hour earlier than I should have been. Chuffing hell it was chilly, by the time the game started I was suffering from pneumonia!

So many great memories

Being mascot in 1987 when we beat Leigh 23-14 and tony burke scored 2 tried
41-6 in 1991/2 ish
McCrae's first home win over wigan in 96 - 35016 or something similar?
Wembley 96
First Grand Final beating Bratfut - what an entrance to Nessendorma!
WCC 2001
Millenium 2004
Watching the crowning of our best ever team - 2006 vintage and beating Hull at OT
75-0 and also beating Wire 80-0 in a regal trophy game
And Wide to West

Makes you realise over the past 20 years had some great times as a Saints fan.

As an RL fan.
Being at the game in Melbourne in 1992 when we beat the Aussies 33 - 10. The famous Wigan six pack.(Skerrett, Dermott, Platt, McGinty, Betts and Clarke)

As a Wigan fan Wembley 1989. Murphy bragging pre game that Wigan had never scored a try v Saints at Wembley. Half way through the game his head in hands was a sight to behold.

Then there was the game at KR when Saints were miles in front only for Luke Robinson (and I think Kevin Brown) score hat tricks and Wigan to go on and win. IIRC the game changed on a penalty that failed to find touch by Sean Long.

Probably the finest display you have ever seen at KR was that by Wigan in the Challenge Cup replay after Goulding had hit the post with a drop goal in the first game at CP. Edwards was fuming after that first game. Almost all the replay game shown live on BBC because of England football fans rioting in Dublin at the game v Ireland and it being abandoned.

Offiah and Robinson ran riot at KR.

We're a club with a rich, long and ever ongoing trail of unparalleled success, glory and achievement. We like to revel in and reminisce about it. We have no need to develop the same collective amnesia and find other non-RL related things to have to talk about to blot out the embarassing memories of an endless history of mediocrity and pointlessness as your sorry, sad, pathetic, laughable excuse for a club does you know. I know that may come as a bit of a shock to you in your cave with your fingers in your ears going "la la la la la" to yourself and I heartily apologise for any distress that the revelation may cause you.

And let the sleeping commence.







Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Northampton Saint, its ironic given what you said to Fatbelly, that you choose to react so immaturely to Rogues Gallery...

How so? I thought my Rogues Rejoinder was perfectly apt given his ultra-tedious and even more ultra-predictable "let's hijack yet another Saints thread and **** on about Wigan on it instead" post. If I wanted to read a discussion about Wigan teams and performances and all the trophies they irreparably mortgaged their future buying in the '80s and '90s then I'd grow a few extra chromosomes, marry my sister and go drag my knuckles over to the Wigan forum. I don't - I'm on a Saints forum wanting to read about Saints, and so I think it's hardly too much to ask for our pie-munching (distant) cousins to keep their tedious trolling to themselves, n'est pas?

To be honest, if you'd have ignored them like everyone else the topic would have kept on track. As it is you took just as much a part in derailing it. Just rise above it.

Well it wouldn't have taken too much to guess that Rogues Gallery would read this forum as you know how much he likes to keep up with the Saints. He may have even been tempted to overlook this thread and then he saw you claim:



Now come on, if that's not a cherry and white rag to the bull I don't know what is.

Rogues has been around longer than most of us and seen more league games than we've had kebabs and hangovers, I like reading his posts, I always have the music from the Warburtons ad in my head while I read them.

So come on Rogues lets hear some more of your memories, what about older games, have you got some good memories from the 60s or 70s that you could share for the benefit of us young'uns?

SC.

We've got a very special 90 year old lady (my mam) up at our house for a meal tonight. I'll ask her about for her favourite games (probably from the 40's and 50's)

Then I'll add mine from the 50's 60's 70's and 80's

You'd have a point if it wasn't for the fact that that surgically targetted strike of mine on high value Wire-based military assets was made after he staggered in smelling of strongbow, old spice and stale urine to troll on in his oh so predictable trademark style. If a rag [iwas[/i being waved then it was as a token gesture after the bull had unprovoked already smashed through the exits and was careening off down the street....

Good man Rogues and regards to your mam. I look forwards to hearing your stories later and I'm sure my chums from Saints are all really looking forwards to hearing them as well.

In the meantime here are some of my favourites:

One of my first memories of rugby league was a derby in the first season I was watching Wire (1989/90). We won our first 6 games of the season and were top of the league, and Widnes, who had just won the World Club Challenge against Canberra, came to Wilderspool for a Lancashire Cup semi final. This was a very eagerly anticipated derby as at this point it was thought that Warrington and Widnes would be the sides to beat that season, and we had a crowd of 10000 plus at Wilderspool which wasn't common those days. The atmosphere was amazing. Warrington played Widnes off the park - they weren't even in the game, and Greg Mackey who had just arrived on a short term deal from Illawarra Steelers, bossed the game and was class. I remember the feeling walking away from that game, and what people were saying in the stands, was that we were on the verge of something special. We won the Lancashire Cup against Oldham a week later. Unfortunately a few weeks later we had our first loss of the season against Saints (the first team I saw beat us), Greg Mackey's deal expired and he got signed by Hull, and we went on a disastrous run of form and went careering down the table. We managed (with the help of a lucky draw) to rescue some pride that season by getting to Wembley but we were soundly beaten by Wigan. This was one of two moments (the other being in 1995) when Warrington were close to being able to kick on and be a top side, but just lost momentum and lost key players.

Other great memories

- a Challenge Cup tie at Thrum Hall in 1994, this was notable for a second half comeback that featured two spectacular solo tries from Jonathan Davies. If there was ever a game where one man turned it round it was Davies, he was at the absolute peak of his game then.

- a home game against Saints in 1996, Saints won by one point, it featured memorable tries from Jon Roper and Richard Henare. Henare's try was from a scrum on our line where Scully flicked it out to him on the short side, and he just burned straight down the touchline - right past where I was standing - and did everyone for speed. I also remember that day, because it was my last day of school in Year 11, and after the game I went to a party, and experienced my first close encounter with the opposite sex...I was still buzzing off Henare's try when I was getting down to business and I reckon it took me about as long to finish as it did for him to run the length of the field

- Nigel Vagana bursting onto the scene with a hat-trick in a win over Wigan in early 1997 (this was before people had realised the pies were going crap), we had started the season disastrously and Jon Dorahy got sacked, Paul Cullen took over as caretaker coach a few days before the game and we roasted Wigan, Vagana was superb

- ending the unbeaten run of the "Unbeatabulls" Bradford in 2000 who had started off that season looking like they were going to run away with Super League, they were well ahead at half time and we thought we were in for a roasting but Allan Langer put on a masterclass in the second half and Bradford couldn't deal with it. Also our forwards really got stuck into theirs and they lost the plot, Brian McDermott got sent off for a high tackle on Mark Hilton and there were some of the best fights I've seen, with Hilton, Nutley and Farrar going toe to toe with Vagana, Lowes and the Bradford pack. Robbie and Henry Paul had been strutting around in the first half but in the second with things going against them and the Wire fans getting in to them they lost their cool and were pointing and ranting at their own players. That was the day we really saw what all the fuss was about regarding Langer, a genuine great playing in a very ordinary side.

- Andrew Johns' debut in 2005 at home to Leeds, the expectation and build up for that game was on a different level to anything I'd seen, and it was probably the most intense first couple of minutes I've ever seen in rugby league, it felt like State of Origin or Superbowl at the start of the game, with a massive roar for about 30 seconds before Johns kicked off, then he kicked off, a Leeds player dropped it, we got the scrum and scored off the first set of six in the game and the place was absolutely bouncing. Probably my favourite 2mins ever as a rugby fan.

The cumulative sound of fingers feverishly hitting the "hide user's posts" button across the Saints community will probably be loud enough to cause a tsunami in the South Pacific somewhere and wipe out the population of several small islands. Do you really want mass genocide on your conscience?

I think most Saints fans will remember that day fondly. Pickavance's try was high drama only to be topped by Chris Rudd having that shot at goal that drifted wide, sending us all up in raptures. One of several memorable games for us that season.

Yes that was an exciting season because in those days when the pies won the title every year, there were often other teams in the hunt, chasing them down all year, and they would have a slip at a key point and that would allow the pies to win again.

That season I always had a feeling that Wigan were going to end up nicking it from Saints again because Saints would blow it at some point. There were quite a few games that year, I remember London for one, where Saints were in trouble and pulled the game out of the bag narrowly. Then near the end of the season both Wigan and Saints were smashing everyone, but they were always a point behind, and Saints didn't lose so they could never claw it back...

There has been so many fantastic games its hard to pick a favourite...

CC win over Wigan in 2004 would be up there, as would WCC in 2007 v Brisbane and just about any game of the 2006 season! A lot of last gasp wins over Wire would be up there (the one where KC scored from Lyon's kick in 2005, losing 16-4 on 72 mins and winning 18-16), and obviously 75-0 was another great day but I think my overall favourite was 96 cup final over Bradford.

First cup final of my lifetime not won by Wigan, first time I had seen Saints win a major trophy and the record comeback in a CC final thanks to Bobbie's bomb squad - for those reasons I would say that game would be my favourite ever.

Not the biggest game in the grand scheme of things, but something a bit different and it always tends to be the first one I think of when threads like this come up. We destroyed Wigan 54-16 at the Pie Dome in a GF qualifier in 2000 (I think). Was a really special performance, the highlight being Sullivan catching a bomb on our left side and running the full length of the field, skinning Connolly in the process. I remember Long and Cunningham coming to salute the crowd at the end and a huge scrum of us ran right to the edge of the pitch to greet them.

We beat them in the GF a couple of weeks later too, I remember us being really comfortable early on but then they scored two quickfire tries and I remember a real nailbiter after that. The scenes of joy in the stands when Jonkers went over very late on will live with me forever - I probably hugged about half of this forum on the way down the stand and ended up about 15 rows lower than my seat.

Great days

That may well be my favourite game as well that. I loved The Ultimate Comeback and Cardiff '04 was special but that game, at the minor premiers a couple of weeks after they'd stuffed us on our own turf. Well, that was special. It'll be a long time before we see a minor premier team crushed and with such style as well.

Do you know if there is anywhere stocking DVD's of that game? Would love to see it again.

That was a great game! We ran sacked Wigan on there own turf that day and am I right in thinking thats still there highest ever defeat at the DW? Longy, Martyn, Cunningham and Sculthorpe where outstanding that night infact there all where to be honest.

Another great game was at the DW earlier in that 2000 season. 16-0 down and stirring down the barrell. Tommy Martyn produced in my opinion one of the finest performances of his career to score a hat-trick and nick the game 30-28.

Why is it you pounce on anyone who writes on here from other clubs?

Your constant derailing of threads is spoiling this board.