No matter how big the gulf is between widnes and warrington widnes will always bring 1500-2000 fans to wire/ and vise versa. That in itself makes it an exciting game and there's only a handful of teams that bring that many supporters to warrington. I remember our last stint in SL. First season nobody gave us a hope in hells chance and neill kelly ended up getting coach of the year, beating warrington twice. We had a side mixed with nfp players and aussies nobody had really heard of. I'm not saying we will beat you this year but with watts. Clarke, cross. Hanbury,briscoe and supposedly two more players to come in I think we can compete with the likes of salfordand london. Watts himself for his short stint on the field showed the agression and class he has.

Its a three year process for us. We have a great stadium, great owner who will spend money, great fans and some fantastic academy lads coming through. We will get stronger and the derby days from 10 years ago will be back. 5th april, 26th may and 19th september is all that matters to me.

I should think you will bring more than that?

Exactly. How many does that stand hold and how many did we bring on monday?

The last season Widnes were in Super League our game against Harlequins drew a bigger crowd even though the Widnes game was a traditional Easter fixture.

I cannot see that Super League benefits by including a team from what is to all effects a village between Warrington and St Helens.

As apposed to the Australian crusaders? Biggest farce ever throwing them in the deep end? London? Crowds have not generated in London since the start of sl.

It benefits from one of the brightest academies, facilities, stadium nd one of the best owners in the league.

I did say they were a bit touchy.

You can cite cups won in the 1970s and 1980s with gay abandon, and there's no doubt that Widnes had a number of great sides in those eras.

But, unlike in 2001, you're unlucky to score much of a hit by trolling Wire fans when we all remember doing a jig in the sun at Wembley while the hardcore Widnes fans were struggling to raise a Fandango at Featherstone.

I also think people who are new to this derby will be a bit surprised by the crowds, however, and that is obvious in this thread. In a reduced-capacity Wilderspool there was always a tense atmosphere, but realistically Widnes didn't bring a great number of fans over - not more than Leeds or even Hull.

I won't bite but you know your talking bubbles

I prefer 'between Halewood and Murdishaw' personally

I suppose it's better than orford

Widnes fans are similar to Wigan fans in the way they go on about past glories. This Widnes side has no history, they have only been around for 3 years after the other team went bust.

Looking back at the derby gates last time around, they attracted big crowds in Widnes first year back (2002) and our first year at the HJ (2004) - both games they won - but the other three derbies played at Warrington were nothing unusual compared to our average gates at the time in fact two of those three were lower gates than our average for the season.

In 2002 we had an average gate of 6189 and the gate for the Widnes game was 9105. Widnes had a higher average gate than us that season (6510)
In 2003 we had an average gate of 6978 and the gates for Widnes games were 7264 and 6902. That season the game at Widnes had a higher gate than the two at Warrington - 8537

At that time (pre HJ), the two clubs were probably about equal in size with roughly equal gates.

In 2004 we moved to the HJ and had an average gate of 9880, with a gate for the Widnes game of 11413.
In 2005 we had an average gate of 11078 and the gate for the Widnes game was 10061.

Widnes average gates stayed at around 6500 for their four seasons in SL.

He is talking crap - you were doing the waltz in Whitehaven when we were bringing the Challenge Cup home, not the Fandango in Featherstone.

For the record I think we took 4000 to Wilderspool in 2002! Looked like a good turnout yesterday from the Vikings from what I could make out on the video.

Crowd was about 9,000 that day. You would have to have filled the entire Railway End, Pondlife Corner and have of the Bevan Stand to get up to 4k. In summary, you didn't bring 4k.

Sounds like they might be this seasons Hull KR with their away following predictions...

You not heard for the Widnes game there putting up gaint screens in the town centre for the 1000's of Widnes that won't be able to get into the stadium

Apart from the last 3 years 75% of Wire fans have not seen you win anything.

Around 75% of current Widnes fans have seen us when we were labeled as The Cup Kings.

Enjoy your sucess while it lasts............

Enjoy being in super league whilst it lasts

We're there for the duration now.........

Aye, there's no argument against statistics.

Still, if you add in the last three years, that makes 100% of Wire fans that have seen us win trophies.

You Widnes fans shouldn't underestimate your Northern Rail Cup win of course, though I doubt 75% of the fans who will attend Widnes games this season bothered to attend.

And how many of that supposed turnout acted like ing knobs during the two minute silence for the queen mother's passing?

a ing lot of them.

Welcome back to SL.


Have you noticed this though, general point here, the teams that have been promoted into SL after it began, the fans that they've had/have all seemed to be slightly more old school, the hull teams, widnes, salford, leythers, it seemed in their first/only seasons that their fans, hadn't moved on, with the whole family aspect like the rest of the SL teams, for them it was still 1995.

Seeing as we took about 30000 to Wembley I would have said 300-400% of Wire fans have seen us win trophies.

100% of current Warrington and Widnes fans will be dead before Widnes win the Challenge Cup again. Numbers games are fun.

They'll probably go bust again before then anyway.

what video..and how come you got to see it...cmon stick the link on here so i can view it