So.. the time seems right to create this thread. Wire v Leeds, 9th August.

First off, who's going?

What's everyone's plans for the day?

I'm taking a few friends of mine, we're getting to St Helens town centre late-morning then making our way to the ground for 1pm to sample and contribute to the (hopefully) fantastic atmosphere.

I look forward to seeing you all there for a fantastic match!

Well im going to be there much to the dismay of some, well early start breakfast then beer.

Know of any decent boozers in Saints?

I'm going with the usual crowd plus my Wife. It seems when I bought tickets I overlooked our wedding anniversary. Ooops!

I'm going with the wife & children. Can't wait. Hope to The Lord that were up for it. The pain of the defeat at Hudds by FC took ages to get over.

I was more disappointed with the performance v Hull than the result mate.

We were going along great until you know what happened.....BTW we could have snatched it at the end

One of the most disappointing aspects of the game was that after kicking us to death, turning us round at every opportunity often early in the tackle count, FC didn't even bother to turn up for the Final

Flying over Friday.

Really up for this now after beating Catalans.

Hope the Lower and Wilkies have some good ale on next weekend.

Vespid. The two nearest to the ground are probably the glass house and running horses. There is the turks head which is popular but a bit of a walk not far from the asda.

If it's a nice day then the best place to go is the glass horse which is a new pub that's opened near the retail park on the opposite side of the ground to the town centre. They have a massive outdoor space and is a 2min walk to the ground.

But I suppose it depends which way you are coming into the ground. If you're in the town centre then the two spoons pubs (running horses and glass house) are your best bet.

Thanks guys, will try the two in the town centres then make our way to the glass horse before going in.

I'm assuming & hoping that we didn't get any new injuries last night, so my team for Saturday would be.

Russell
Joel
Grix
Atkins
Evans
Ratch
Bridge
Hill
Higham
England
Trent
Super Ben
Harrison

Michael
Woody
Roy
Laithwaite

I have put Grix in the Centre to shore up our left side defence, Plus this frees up Joel on the wing against Hall.

To miss out GOB, Ben Currie

No Myler then FB? Can see Ratchford staying at full back with Bridge and Myler in the halves but with virtually everyone fit TS has a lot of options.

That's a solid team FB but there's so many options TS can choose from, I wouldn't like to be him this week. I do think that Ratch/Bridge should play in the halves, or at least Bridge/Myler with Ratch at FB. If Ratch is played anywhere other than FB or in the halves and if GOB starts, TS has made a mistake.

Before you go to Glass Horse as Albion says make sure you go to the Running Horses and Glass House otherwise you might be confused. I understand that there is also a pub called the Running Glass, but, it's not doing too well these days

Enjoy your day I will be having the FULL day out looking for other hostelries particularly any that have a combination of glass, running, house and horse in their name

Without scapegoating, because overall I'm quite pleased with his integration into the side, but, given his performance at Widnes and TS having a virtually full squad to pick from particularly in the backs then if I was Russell I might just be worried about my semi final shirt

I think starting MMonas is a must with Higham on the bench.

I'm already confused. Glass this, horse that, running here, house there. Am I being punked or are they really that unoriginal?



What does everyone think of Russell? I think Ratch is better defensively but has Russell done that much wrong to lose his shirt? (Bearing in mind I only listened to the Widnes/Wakey games and didn't see his performance).

for a touch of irony, there's a bar in Bridge Street (StHelens) called Saints. All decked out in red and white. Wouldn't it be great to take it over and rub their noses in it for not winning any silverware for years.

Seems very strange going to Saints for a semi.

I think that you are probably too young to remember Tommy Cooper in his pomp, but, older correspondents might remember his famous " bottle, glass, glass, bottle" routine very funny. Perhaps Tommy was from Saint Helens although I don't remember much about him and horses though ha ha

Russell suffered more than most against Widnes despite a great try saving 'hold up' tackled in the first half and although I like him, I think that the resurgent Michael Monaghan and Myler coming back might give TS a thought about shuffling the team and young Matt might just cop a sit down and a bit of thinking time with Ratchord starting at FB It wouldn't be the first time that TS has made that difficult decision

Pinching our streets ruddy scousers

Sounds like a good idea to me but they'll probably be shut for this exact reason!

How many Rhinos do you think will make the trip?

Tommy would have enjoyed the pub crawl if not the RL. Great comedian but loved a drink a little too much.

Ben Currie will probably miss out next Saturday. Looked like he injured his knee in the first half. Might have missed it but I don't think he played any part of the second.

I can see him with ratchford and bridge at half back, higham at hooker and monas and myler on the bench. We did this earlier in the season and when I saw the team I wasn't happy with having both on the bench but it worked really well when all five were on the pitch in the second half. If it's dry on Saturday this could work against Leeds, if we have playmakers all over the pitch and keep moving the ball about I think it will tire out their forwards and could be the difference