Not wanting to be pedantic IW, because I know exactly the smell you mean, back then I don't think Deep Heat was available, that smell came from a bottle of oil called Wintergreen.

I used to love that smell. Always wash your hands after applying though!

I had the misfortune to deposit a small blob of Wintergreen on to my personal and private parts...I spent a good ten minutes under a running tap of cold water before the agony subsided.

I used to slow down walking past it, I can still smell it now when I think about it, what a ground!

My parents met at Wilderspool 60 odd years ago. My dad and his mates would move out of the way of my mum and her mates...................... so she knocked him over the wall that encircled the pitch. Seems we had some troublemakers even back then.

Drove down the Causeway this afternoon and glanced down Fletcher St.

Shouldn't have.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. IT'S ALL RUBBLE.

Bugger!

Well I watched the U20 / U19 matches at Wilderspool, and it was good to relive the memories from 50 years ago in the old wooden stand. But in truth the old girl was in a depressing condition. Her skirts were in a shocking state, with all sorts of litter and detritus around the outside. The pigeons flapped around the old club, the cheap cement blocks supporting the scoreboard looked as though they were imported from a Moldovan demolition yard, and I think I preferred the old wooden bench seats to the modern offering. The one quality bit of infrastructure was the pitch which apart from periods of heavy sustained rain, looked in a superb state.

Time to let the old girl join the ghosts that were our heroes... when we were young.

You've just described half the female population of Wigan there, Winslade's

Snookers was essentially a huge pigeons nest by the end.

I am not sure girls wear skirts anymore, certainly not those from Wigan. It seems to be all skin tight leggings, with the material desperately doing it's best to hang on to a very generous pair of buttocks. And why do they choose white pants under black leggings ? Surely if you put on a pair of dark sunglasses, the object is to stop the background glare getting through ? No wonder Tom Daly has turned his attention elsewhere.

Snookers was probably the worst part of the Old Girl, simply because it was directly in front of the main stand. Correction, it was the only stand we were allowed to use, as Health and Safety had closed the rest. With facia boards falling off, it had indeed become one large pigeon loft. I suspect Health and Safety strictly limited the number of pigeons allowed to roost there, just in case the combined weight brought the entire building down.

Some big pockets on those tables, then. Get a pigeon in there, and Lenny Peters would be getting 147's every weeek

I was just going to ask who Lenny Peters was and then I remembered and was in bits laughing.
Probably best that the old girl's gone, but it won't half seem strange when I come home and drive down the Causeway. Quite a bit of my youth has disappeared in the past few years.

Last night I stumbled across an absolutely soul destroying picture of an empty patch of land where Wilderspool should be standing. Do not go looking for this picture. Not sure I'll be able to cross Bridgefoot again.

Surely Moranovich could transfer the HJ to where Wilderspool was but scrap the east and west stands and rebuild an exact replica of the fletch and railway end... Please Simon?

I mean... Come on. That does look good.

Anyone posting a demolished Wilderspool picture gets banned

Get out.

Can't see that pic mate, I'm assuming you've photoshopped the North and South stands onto the old girl?

Old picture... it was taken at half time during the recent U19 GF against Wigan.

ive played on worse.

Exactly. I reckon the Widnes pitch is much worse than that.

Caption Competition ?

" Hey guys, you are going to think I'm really stupid, but I think I was looking at the demolition plans upside down"

Ouch that photo really hurts.

More chance at getting injured certainly.