talking the other night about this match and wonder who else out there went and what are your memories of it.

my abiding memory is watching dessie sorting out there prop forward- stand to be corrected but think it was mick morgan.
also remember we were winning at the time .

the brawl seemed to last for ages

I seem to recall what a dumb decision by the ref to form a scrum after both teams going hell for leather with each other.




I wonder if Shane Varley wants to come out of retirement.

It made the national news. We lost the rematch.

YEAH, we were winning summat like 26-14, then that happened. All I remember is Jeff Clarke throwing some cracking punches !!!

I bought this game off Leigh on Video a couple of years back, in my opinion the ref bottled out big time he should have sent a couple off before the brawl,that would have sorted the game out

Was Phil Johnson stood on his own under the posts watching?

Brawls are a vital part of the game if you ask me teams are so disciplined these days that getting a brawl started early can knock a team off its gameplan BRING BACK THE BIFF i say!

I was there with my Dad stood in the kop end (who remembers when Oldham could not just fill Watersheddings but also make a great atmosphere?).

Huge all in bar room brawl, followed by the referee awarding a scrum



The second was even tastier which only ended when everyone was blowing out of their backsides only for the ref then to signal the game was over and stomp off leaving the players on the pitch to wonder what to do next! I think they may have actually shook hands and headed towards the changing rooms!

I remember asking my Dad 'what happens now' because Dads know everything and he just shrugged his shoulders and said 'No idea, I've never seen that before!'

I'm sure we both got fined £1000.

Fred has this on DVD and will supply for a generous amount

seem to remember a load of fans heading to the big white building or house where they got changed and was their offices and angry fans chanting they wanted their money back.
another game was leeds at home,fog came in thick just before kick off,you could just see over the 25,but they played on til half time so they didnt need to give the spectators their money back.we were losing that,but the re arranged game i think we thrashed um (memories).

Was it not Phil Johnsons debut??

and if your player is red carded for starting it and you have to play a man short all match?

I remember the game well. The referee was J W Mean like a previous post we were winning at the time, Tony Cottrell had been sent off and after a bit of hand bags the ref gave a scrum. Mick Morgan who was playing at 13 knocked 10 bells out of our front row and the scrum irrupted and the ref just walked off.

In the replay which was a couple of months later we lost with about 4 points. I remember the ball was bobing about in our in goal area Gary Straddings tried to kick it dead and missed completely and Oldham scored.

Everyone was standing in that covered end, not the bus, wondering what was going on. We ripped them to pieces out wide that day, Woody at centre I recall.

Didn't Phil Fox score 2 good tries at Oldham..


Re Leeds in the fog wasn't there a try scored at the railway end when the ball came back off the fence?

Although this is slightly off topic as it was amatuer my hubby and his old playing mates laugh about a match they were in being abandoned. It was only a few minutes into the game when an all men in brawl began. The ref` blew up and stopped the game the players all pleaded with him to restart it but he refused and walked of the pitch.The two teams stood looking at each other for a minute or two then someone said "why don`t we just play a friendly" so they carried on playing and finished the match without one single bit of bother.

You can still pick up the summary on you tube !!

Daisy Hill Leyther's recall is perfect. I can still see Gary Stradins' air kick in the replayed match. In the first one, am I right in thinking that Steve Donlan started at 6 and Woody in the centres, and that Alf Wilkie had set up two long range tries, offloading in the tackle or on around the 30 metre mark?

I thought most had this game by now

Very true Wayne but i was talking more of the experienced player winding up and niggling away at someone "sledging" as they call it in Aus theres plenty of players in our league who when provoked lose it, for me its an important part of the game that has been lost, discipline is so importnat these days but if you can get an advantage by trying a few underhand tactics so be it, am sure Basil could think of something

If Basil CAN'T think of any underhand tactics then I'm sure we can learn a few off the March brothers when we play Hunslet