10th March the table was...

Castleford Played 21 Points 30
Widnes Played 19 Points 28
Hull Played 19 Points 28
Wigan Played 16 Points 23

Ended Up

Wigan Played 26 Points 42
Widnes Played 26 Points 40
Hull Played 26 Points 34
Castleford Played 26 Points 34

Great achievement but I was a bit confused trying to figure out how Wigan ended up playing Featherstone away on Good Friday (instead of Saints at home as scheduled) and also being away on Easter Monday away to Oldham. Anyway I found out the answer - Saints were in a Cup Semi that weekend. Must have been a weird Good Friday!

I read Wigan's backlog sparked a lot of politics with Wigan failing to have the season extended by 3 days.

That decision left Wigan playing during the final week of the season Castleford Sunday (at 6:30pm), Bradford Tuesday, Widnes Thursday and Leeds (Away) on the Saturday.

Maurice argued to get the Bradford and Widnes games swapped round meaning title rivals Widnes got less an advantage in terms of rest from the previous weekend (they had played Saturday Afternoon). Widnes were very angry at the RFL accepting that but they lost an appeal. Whatever I think about Maurice, he was one shrewd man!



For the record here is how the season panned out after March 10th for Wigan & Widnes.

=redWed 13 Mar Wigan 34 Hull 12 (Played 17 Points 25)
Sun 17 Mar Widnes 34 Bradford 14 (Played 20 Points 30)
=redSun 17 Mar Rochdale 16 Wigan 44 (Played 18 Points 27)
Wed 20 Mar Widnes 25 Warrington 6 (Played 21 Points 32)
Sun 24 Mar Featherstone Widnes 22 Widnes 27 (Played 22 Points 34)
=redTue 26 Mar Warrington 8 Wigan 26 (Played 19 Points 29)
=redGood Fri 29 Mar Featherstone 16 Wigan 24 (Played 20 Points 31)
Easter Mon 1 Apr St Helens 12 Widnes 20 (Played 23 Points 36)
=redEaster Mon 1 Apr Oldham 4 Wigan 10 (Played 21 Points 33)
=redThu 4 Apr Wigan 28 St Helens 14 (Played 22 Points 35)
Sat 6 Apr Sheffield 13 Widnes 18 (Played 24 Points 38 )
=redSun 7 Apr Wigan 24 Castleford 4 (Played 23 Points 37)
=redTue 9 Apr Wigan 26 Widnes 6 (Played 24 Points 39)
Tue 9 Apr Wigan 26 Widnes 6 (Played 25 Points 38 )
=redThu 11 Apr Wigan 18 Bradford 18 (Played 25 Points 40)
=redSat 13 Apr Leeds 8 Wigan 20 (Played 26 Points 42)
Sun 14 Apr Widnes 44 Rochdale 20 (Played 26 Points 40)

I remember the Widnes game on the tuesday, 29k inside CP gates locked 30mins from kick off and IIRC the "new" stand behind the posts was still to be open and what a performance from us....

Went to every single game.......boy was I skint after that month!!!

Why such a backlog? Was it due to us being so successful in the cup games that it meant league games being rearranged?
It can't have been a weather issue as only Wigan are affected on the above league table as at 10th March.

Can you imagine todays players bacing up so many games in such a short space of time.....

PS: we also beat the Stains at Wembley as well
The 13-8 final

And people complain about no rest for the players

That game was awesome. The closest it felt to the Manly game attendance wise.
Remember getting a good spot under the Pop Stand, then unwisely deciding to get a pint 20 minutes before kick off. No chance at all of getting back on the terracing!! Ended up underneath the scoreboard, and that was a squash as well..!!

Will we ever see crowds like that again?

Unlikely considering we play at the DW Stadium with a capacity of 25K.

I heard a comment (from a Tics fan) just after the stadium was built was that Whelan was considering developing the ground to a £40k capacity when the demand for tickets in the premier league became unprecedented.

Seems miles away now

What I mean is selling out for big games when its not saints. Say we were playing I don't know, Hull KR in a top of the table clash at the back end of the season. Something like that, you know what I mean. We only get big crowds for the big one and the saints games at home.

Sun 16th Dec (Played 23rd December)
Leeds (H) because Wigan had a Regal Trophy 1/4 Final

Sun 13 Jan (Played 11th April)
Bradford (A) - Bradford were playing in Regal Trophy Final

Sun 27 Jan (Played 13th March)
Hull (H) because Hull were drawn to play in Challenge Cup Preliminary Round. Was also GB v France 1st Test.

Sun 17 Feb (Played 29th March)
Featherstone (A) Heavy Snow had cause many cup ties to be postponed the previous week and thus their game at Sheffield was re-arranged. Wigan's cup tie at Cas had also been postponed the week before but they played that in the midweek. Was also GB v France 2nd Test.

Sun 10 Mar (Played 9th April)
Widnes (H) - Challenge Cup Quarter Finals

Sun 24 Mar (Played 26th March)
Warrington (A) - Challenge Cup Semi Final for Wigan

Fri 29 Mar (Played 4th April)
St Helens (H)- Challenge Cup Semi Final for Saints although we played Fev instead.

Wigan also opted not to re-arrange games in the midweesk prior to Challenge Cup ties or in the midweeks prior and on the weekend of the two Great Britain v France Test Matches.

Did games get called off for test calls up or did sides just play on?

If we had title deciders like that we'd easily sell out at Robin Park in my view. Especially if it was Saints. But those days are gone with the play off format.

We get big crowds against saints anyway...

Think we will ever get an average over 20,000 then? IL rekons so..

It's a target but it won't happen. I think we can get half way there (17,000ish) but not to 20,000. We just don't play enough big games anymore in the regular season.

Nail on head. People might disagree, but as far as I'm concerned there is no doubting that the play-offs devalue the league competition and the chase for the title etc.

What if we cut prices to Hudds standards and have the success of Leeds

there are 4,800 seats in the North Stand so we(home fans) can only sell up to 20,200. Any crowds higher than that depend on away following.

If the Championshp was decided on league placings then even nothing games like Celtic or Quins at home would bring in a good crowds cos every game becomes massive.

If it was up to me, i'd go back to the first past the post wins the championship and CC final the week after, then a top 8 straight knockout playoff. Just my preference.

Whilst that is my preference, that only works if you're close enough to the top two.

The central computerised turnstile counter broke down with over 29k inside the ground - allegedly, many more were inside on the night.

I remember the feeling that we had blown it following the draw with Bradford - IIRC, the ref for this was either Whitfield or Holdsworth

Best rugby watching week of my life! I can remember clear details of every game still it was a fantastic time and one we won't ever see again.

Wasn't old enough to remember or really experience it unfortunately. Did experience something similar with an often mentioned on here football team though.

missed the cas game due to work but went to the all last 3 games beat widnes drew with bradford 18-18 correct me if i wrong but were bradford in front for a long time and won at leeds. in john monie book... the pitch was muddy and despite winning made the players change into fresh kit at half time and treat it was 0-0 and new game. a great week ... talking about saints game on good fridays 1989 saints played widnes in 1989 semi final on easter saturday so game again on good friday was cancel correct me if wrong

in reply to bilko the game at featherstone due to pub hours on good friday pubs shut from 1500-1900 (by the laws of england at that time) and the game kick off at 1930 and 1900 hours the pub nearest to fev ground their was about 60 wigan fans wanted a pint but the landlord of the pub had poured about 100 pints on the bar so at 1900 all the wigan fans went in and the 60 fans were served within 5 mins brillant thinking and wigan won

Not quite - we played our semi v Warrington on Easter Saturday. What a lunatic time to play a cup semi final!

They had played Widnes two weeks before.

The thing I remember most clearly about the 'Mission Impossible' run-in was the Premiership quarter-final a week after we'd successfully completed our league fixtures. With the team physically shattered after so much challenging and intensive rugby, John Monie had no option but to turn out the A-team to face Featherstone. Predictably we lost - Featherstone then went and celebrated as if they'd won the Challenge Cup.

More than anything else, that showed to me how far removed from Wigan so many other clubs were in that era - not just physically, but intellectually, emotionally etc. Featherstone clearly had no concept of what Wigan had just gone through.