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.

He rested 11 players apparently. It's the only [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=1462team sheet[/url I don't have for that year so if anyone has it?

It looks like the team included players like Russell Bridge, Paul Gartland, John Gilfillan, Gus O'Donnell, Shaun Wane (only game that season), Steve Blakeley and a long since retired Graeme West.

Sadly, I have no team sheet. But if memory serves, Wigan treated it as an end-of-season warm down. Having just won the league in incredible circumstances, the Premiership seemed like very small potatoes. The Wigan fans were not upset. They cheered their team's achievements of that season, and roundly booed Featherstone's ridiculous celebrations.

I went to everyone of those games. Two abiding memories


1) The Cas game at home and Graeme West coming out of retirement to play and scoring the last try of the game. The crowd went wild, it was as if we had won the championship already.


2) The final game at Leeds, I took Liam who was then only 5 years of age. The Leeds speccies were superb, so many of them came up to us before the game saying "We hope Leeds don't lose but we hope that you don't either"
A draw would have been good enough for us to win the Championship.

Wel,l we went one better with a display of guts and enthusiasm that I doubt we will ever see again (Oh and three Bobbie (Bobby) Goulding drop goals)

IIRC the Leeds chairman at the time commented that it was the greatest achievement of any team in any sport.

If I remember correctly - and I may be wrong on this, but didn't Wigan have to postpone on of their matches earlier on in that season because the under soil heating hadn't been switched on, and the match called off due to frost ?

Yes, it was the Bradford game.

It was brilliant that.
We went out and got undersoil heating and then forgot to turn it on!

there was only a problem with one corner of the pitch but it was enough to stop the game being played. It nearly cost us the League.

I vaguely remember that, amazing would hapen these days