Seeing as there's only another week left until the new season I thought I'd create a new topic, something for folk to discuss.

What do you miss about the good old days? Or what was your favourite team/player/ground/pint/away ground in days gone by. Please go into detail and not just write one word answers e.g. Central Park. Write what exactly you miss about it or liked about it and so on and so forth.

I miss going to Knowsley Road in the away end, I used to love that stand as the roof was quite low so the atmosphere was electric when we played the skints. It provided the worst defeat I've ever attended 75-0 and a few great wins 2001, 2003 Good Friday, Luke Robinson hat trick and the last good Friday derby.

I miss Leonard Sachs and the unbelievable words he used to use to bring on the acts, Danny la Rue and the rendition of "The old bull and bush" at the end



On the rugby front I miss Central Park, standing under the scoreboard (located in the window) and looking at the Kop end and thinking " good crowd on today, the corner of the Kop is full". Also buying a cone of chips from the little chip van on the dougie side and walking to the Kop at half time to change ends. Surprising how you miss the little things like that.

Central Park. Even though we used to lose every time I miss that kind of atmosphere. Langtree park and the DW stadium are soulless in comparison

Regards

King James

I was too young to appreciate Central Park (13/14 when it went), I remember sitting on the crash barriers and sometime when it was packed having to stand in the corner behind the floodlight. Never had the please of standing on the bridge though

There was no better ground than central park when it was full, best atmosphere's i've ever been in were at Central Park

v Australia 1982, 1986, 1990
v Saints in the 8-8 O'Donnell hand of god game
v Saints lancs cup semi final on a wednesday (i think) ian Roberts made his debut
v Widnes on a tuesday night and 28000 packed in to see a classic
v Manly the atmosphere was electric from 5pm (when i got on) to 10:30 when i finally got off


There are loads more but they are the ones that stand out for me.

i miss terracing and i miss watching the juniors play before the 1st team

It's not that old but I miss going down to London. As an away game it was one of the highlights of the year.

I miss the shoulder charge and a bit of biff without the worry of getting sin binned for throwing a punch.

Watching the kick and clap and the ridiculous over sanitisation of their code I think you bring those 2 rules back into play and our sport becomes much more of an intense spectacle again.

I miss having only 2 subs, 4 changes and 5 yards and not 10 yards for the defensive line. The game changed after these changes were made.

I miss Wilderspool as much as Knowsley road. We didn't quite have the rivalry with Wire in the latter days that we do now but the atmosphere was superb with a roof you could touch at points and who can forget the old 'Snookers' Snooker club (you don't get that sort of thing anymore).

I also miss top quality derbies with Saints. It feels an age since we were last on an even-ish keel with one team or the other being comfortably better then the other for a good while now or when they have been of a similar level it's been because both are playing poorly. I look forward to going to a Derby with both teams flying and not being able to pick a winner.

Now this is a good thread, hope you dont mind

The things I miss are:

1. All the different cups that were played for, (John Player / Regal Trophy, Lancashire cup and BBC2 floodlight trophy)

2. The smell of winter green when the players ran out. (Dont seem to get that waft anymore)

3. All the old rugby grounds: Hilton Park, Central Park, Naughton Park, Knowsley Road, Wilderspool, Boulevard and Station Road to mention a few.

4. Swapping "ends" at half time

5. Freezing cold during winter rugby

6. Getting in for a quid

7. Driving to away grounds before Sat Navs (once went to the wrong Bramley, there is one near Doncaster)

8. Replica shirts with the towns crest on - bit of a bug bear for me this one

Ahh the good old days eh!!!

Looking forward to a good season. Win the Wigan sevens or the Locker Cup and it was a good season. In the henpen for a shilling. The floodlit cup, the arrival of Green Vigo. The Aussie touring teams

I dont miss the cold, even as a kid I would have the mobility of a plank of wood after 40mins of winter rugby.

The derbies at Knowsley Road were great. As others have mentioned, being packed in with that low tin roof really made for a great atmosphere. It felt a lot bigger beating a team with Long, Cunningham and Sculthorpe in it too, they aren’t really the same sort of threat now. I miss Bradford games too when they seemed invincible.

I miss the biff and i miss brutality.

I miss flair and watching the ball move around the park with finesse.

I miss crafty halfbacks and i miss nutcase prop forwards

I miss watching the first play the ball after a massive punch up. Better still when it is the returning pugilists running at each other.

I miss Kelvin Skerrett a LOT

Surely the important thing was to be missed BY Kelvin Skerret?

I miss getting onto the Trolly Bus in Atherton then getting off at the Bird in the Hand in Hindley before changing buses to Wigan and Central park, all in the 50s.

Being at Central Park for a Good Friday match against Saints with the other 47000 plus for the record crowd, trembling before my boss (an ex Leigh Director) to ask for time off for a Wednesday 3.00 pm kick off match against Leeds in a reply at Central Park, the crowd was approaching 40.000 and the score was close to 40 (for Wigan)as well. This same day me and my mate had to get off the bus at Ince Bar and run the rest of the way because the traffic was gridlocked.
Being there for most of the trys Billie scored during his career, a pleasure in itself.
Having my heart in my mouth when playing Saints at home and Murphy broke through, in your own mind you knew he was gone such was his pace over the ground. Also the little tussles (LITTLE TUSSLES

) he used to have with Mick Sullivan.
The same could be said about Tom Van Vollenhoven (without the tussles), he was a truly remarkable runner.
Brian Mctuige in my eyes a prop supreme who would have stood out in any era.

The match against Manly in the W.C.C in 1988,? Central Park was really buzzing, with Sean Wane running round thumping any Manly player he encountered, with Nicky Kiss being his willing helper.

I could go on and on talking about going to most grounds in the league, mixing with the opposition and having a bit of banter . I think a lot of enjoyment went out of the game when fans at Central Park started changing ends at halftime, losing the banter with the opposition fans somehow seemed to make the match a bit sterile.
Finally a mention about visiting Knowsley Road , my favourite away ground, we used to park up on a long street at the Wigan end of the ground. There was l little club which I think belonged to Pilkingtons, we would walk in and straight away Saints fans would make us welcome by making room for us to sit down, often on the same table.

I have already said I could go on and on and on, hopefully the memories will always be there.
Hence my user name. Still in the Past.

Getting to a game early and seeing the U18s playing, a glimpse at what could be coming in the future years.

I miss the clashes we had against Widnes in the 80s. What a team they had back then.....

I once (the CC cup draw in the 80's) followed a car rhrough Bramley with a cherry and white scarf in the back window. It was only when it pulled into a drive on an estate that I realised it wasn't going to the game. As I did a 3 point turn there were about 6 other cars full of Wigan fans following us as well! For those who remember the game, it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I'd not got there.

I remember it well 10-10 and I think I was one of the six cars following you

You've just broken a long forgotten memory! My dad was one of the six cars with me in the passenger seat!



I remember the housing estate and the first car doing a U-turn, everyone wound their windows down and nobody had a clue where they were!



As to the game itself we were very fortunate to draw that game, decent crowd with a great following from Wigan. I have a photo of the main stand that day somewhere, cracking stand it was!

The main thing is you got there!!

I was asking people where Mc Laren Field was in Bramley Doncaster, Duhh - still I was young then

Griffiths

Boston
Ashton
Holden
Sullivan

Bolton
Thomas

Bretherton
Sayer
Barton
McTigue
Cherrington
Evans

Someone mentioned earlier about the 5 yard rule, I do think we would have deeper attacking lines with that rule like in RU and would make the game more interesting. I'd add to that hooking at the play the ball, we seem to have cleaned the game up so much it's now sterile.

I miss us playing as GB, England just doesn't have the same pull for me and never will. Even though they'd be the same team, there's nothing better than GB v Aus, in my opinion when we switched to England we gave away a massive part of our heritage.

Oh god yes.

Dont have to disband the individual national teams, just bring back the lions every couple of years.