I suppose it depends on what time you aim to arrive in Salford?

Try the Packet House in Eccles, there should plenty of room for your lot in there

. You're probably best off in the Con Club next to the ground mate tbh or if you're on the tram nip into the Grey Mare for a couple, it's 100 yards from the Weaste stop. Not sure what time the tavern under the clubhouse opens at but always good for the last hour or so before kick off. Have a safe journey over

Right okay, thanks a lot for info. Not many of us have been to the Willows before, so thought better find out just incase............. Sure we will have a safe journey!

see you all tomorrow.

Why change a winning team? I'd go with exactly the same 17 as last week, lets not bring Anderson in just for the sake of it he needs a few U20's to get some sort of match fitness first IMO.

We will prob be in sunny eccles or the quays for a few beers before the game,

Could anyone give me some ideas for parking close to the ground please? Driving up from the south and back after the game so somewhere close would be a help.

Crusaders have their three 'visa' players back in tonight and Tansey ! How do you think those guys will fare ? Will they be lacking match fitness or will they really bolster crusaders ! I'm a little wary about their inclusion . I hate the fact we're favourites for this one ! We don't one ounce of complacency to creep in ! We need to punish the crusaders and send a
Message to the rest of super league !

Come on reds.

Thats a great point. Cos these 3 'visa' players will be very influential to us. Perhaps not straight away tonight because of fitnees, but when they are fully fit, they will be a huge help to us. If they have got their fitness up to normal standard it could be a very interesting game!

I've parked on Gore Ave for years ( just at the side of the ground) you'll be fine there.

Always think that Sammut (sp) is a brilliantly off the cuff player. Wouldn't be surprised if one of the big clubs came in for him at some point.

Think tonight more than any other game this season the forwards will need to lay a solid platform for the skilfull backs to try and weave thier magic. Do though think it will be a good game but an odd choice for SKY, makes me think they like to see a 1/2 empty Willows to add fire to the dislike of Salford.

They're obliged to show every team on TV a certain amount of times per season due to the contract. They basically get to kill two birds with one stone by showing two teams that they don't really want to feature that much.

Anyone know if the U20's are on tonight?

JUST THE MAIN EVENT TONIGHT at THE WILLOWS

KO 19:15...

I said it at the start of this thread - the crowd was gonna be poor and it was.

What upsets me, I want people to come and see what a great game RL is, but I just feel that the club arent doing enough.; I took a mate last night, who lives 1 mile from the ground, but had no idea it was even there!!!!!

People say 'free tickets dont work'...fair enough maybe thats true. But what happened to the golden angel ticket scheme.....I know its free (ish), but it boosted crowds (ie 6000 against swinton)

we shoudl use it for games like last night....3400 on sky and the other clubs are all laughing saying we shoudlnt be in league...etc etc ...it give them ...and possibly the RFL ammunitiion to use asgainst us.

6000 last night on Sky would have been a real eye opener for some people, but I feel a lack of marketing, foresight or somethign from the club is not helping. we need to do more..NOw....not later in the new staidum....we HAVE to progress with crowd figures this year.

Although, after the game last night, not sure many would return



Just annoys me our crowds are consistently poor, and from admittedly and outsiders view, it looks like the club arent doing enough, certainly not as much as has been done in the past.

Whilest I think that the draw would have been a fair result for an enthralling game of RL got to say that the vidoe ref decision to award the 2nd try sent his way was appauling. A hand and a knee underneath it yet they allegedly still grounded it??

At one point the stick thin touch judge was within 10 yards of a knock on and he stood there looking for giudance from Ganson about what to do and only when indicated it was the right thing to do did he signal for a knock on.

And am I the only person who thinks that it was incredibly unprofessional for Ganson to react when walking off at the end of the game to the "fat Granny beater" chants? pretty certain that the RFL would have something to say if there is any vidoe footage of that as surely a ref needs to stay calm and impartial reguardless of the drivel being thrown his way by fans?

Didn't hear that, there are some things I miss about not standing in the Shed!


However, I think Ganson was well within his rights to react - just becasue he's a ref doesn't mean he's not human.

If some of the delicate little flowers in the Shed don't like referees reacting to their chants, maybe they shouldn't sign naughty songs??

If I'd been in the Shed chanting that I would've been delighted at provoking a response from Ganson (and then sung it louder!) rather than demanding that he's punished by the RFL?!

Sad to say that we have the exact same problem..................Marketing is pretty poor at our club, but obviously more frustrating for you guys seems as you are an established club. But also in Manchester it isn't an area of huge interest in Rugby League is it? Have you tried distrubuting flyers poster etc as fans in streets and things? It certainly worked for us.

He should be used of it by now as he received several renditions of said ditty at Wakefield - He may have even learnt the words by now.

I disagree a ref should be above any form of reaction, it's not then a great leap of faith to suggest that he might throw in the odd decision against the head to get some form of retribution. Not per se asking for him to be punished but think someone might have a quite word towards him before anything like that can be levelled at him.

Crowd looked awful on tv last night, and gets all the RL boards slagging Salford in a franchise year. At least we've not upset a minority of ST holders though.

I dont want this to sound like a big moan at the club just cos we've been beaten, as I know we have limited resources etc, but could anyone with a bit of knowledge (member of staff, FR member, etc) tell us what exactly the club are doing to increase attendances?

I know we have the pub replay thing, schools work etc , but are we doing any marketing for specific 'low attendance' matches? if not why not?

Crusaders did a promotion for their match against Quins....and got 3k plus (without the offer would have been a lot less) Shouldnt we be doing something similar for 'low attendance' matches?

Yes free tickets arent right for EVERY game, but surely for some its ok...or even half price or just something!!

PLus, I still think 20 quid is very expensive for a casual fan. Got a few mates who've been on trial tickets, and would pay 12ish quid to come.....but defo not 20 quid!!

As I say, if anyone with club contacts could tell us what match specific marketing we do, I'd be really interested

Thanks

even with free tickets people would not come, we have been at the Willows 110 years yet there are people we live on Salford Precinct in the flats who have no idea where it is, there are very few pubs in Salford to build up support at and get people in. We are not a Rugby city never have been, and i don't think we ever will, and I don't know how to change that, even Swinton supporters trust has more members than the Salford supporters trust, Salford has a general apathy about it and a can't be d attitude.

To be honest we didn't deserve the win, we had the ball near their line for little patches and looked clueless. We gave our to many stupid penalties like usual which probably lost us the game.

Went to the game -Not great - watched it on TV - not great advertisement for RL.
Can't blame Ref most don't do us any favours but Ganson was OK this time!
Crusaders obviously watched our last 2 performances and defended against Ratchford/Broughton/Patten
We were lacking in passion/aggression and ideas - should have had a better kicking game, perhaps short ball over the top - they were always fast up on defense.
All their 3 tries could be described as lucky or opportunist!
However - always live in hope - will be interesting against Cas next week - usual case will sneak a win or get hammered!

Thats true, but what are the club doing about it? We had golden angel a few years ago andf that seemed to work - well 6000 against swinton would suggest so anyway

Surely, the club should be doing more then. I drive round wigan and see posters billboards advertising for the warriors....theres just nothing around the salford aread

we need to build crowd momentum now and I would love to know what the clubs plans are for this