Pinching themselves when you think about the fact that at about this time in 2005 we lost a heartbreaker to cas at their place in NL1, Then got knocked out of the playoffs by a Ben Fisher led Halifax, With us still playing on a postage stamp of a pitch that flooded if it even looked like rain, Just a big green hill where the golf stand is and floodlights that were pish poor
Now we are pretty much secure in 4th in SL.
Im still finding my head is spinning about it all especially when you consider that I though we would never get there when I heard the rumours back then that SL was going to become a closed shop (Which to a degree it has).

Cue the Gateshull fans ..most of you lot wont remember that etc etc etc..................

Good innit

It is and it was something that struck me at Cas today.
As I can still remember Byron losing the ball/not catching the ball with the line begging to probably win the game for us that day which cost us any real chance of 1st in the league, Well that and us losing to Haven at our place when the freak won it for them all on his own(With a little help from Byron).

The game where Mark Blanchard offloaded to Kane Epati who had the line at his mercy and knocked on with seconds remaining!!!

I thought it was Byron but yeah that was the one.

Nope, was definately epati. He also dropped the ball over the line in the same game. 35v32 or something i think it was.

Fair enough.
My memory is obviously slipping.
Everything else I posted is correct though.
It just puts a smile on my face looking back.

There was over 8,000 there that day too.

Although not tonight for some reason

So you dont like byron,, get over it for f'''k sake.

Too true.

Yep it was a NL1 record at the time

I know it was called something else at the time (maybe just Division One), but isn't the 12,000+ crowd at Boulevard for Hull v us around '97 still the record

Of course we should not forget the 2 wins we did get against Cas in 2005.

Firstly the Northern Rail Cup Final at Blackpool which for me ranks right up there as one of the most exhilarating occasions of recent times. OK it was only the Northern Rail Cup but it was still a bit of a landmark for Rovers.

And then a 40 odd point thrashing of Cas at Craven Park by a James Webster inspired Rovers. If Rovers could have maintained the form they had at that point I believe we would have got promoted a year earlier than we did.

In the end Rovers fell short in 2005 but for me it was the year when Rovers started to be taken seriously again.

I do like Byron actually but I belived it was him in both cases.

In any case his contributions at Blackpool 2005, against Wire the year after and that season in general should always be respected and appreciated IMO.

Key player in our revival was Fordy.

Thats one way of taking....erm I mean looking at it

Indeed.
His......erm celebrations to the Cas fans still have me smiling to this day


That and the cocky look when he scored the first try in the GF!

They are quiet arent they, dunno why

Didn't notice at the time in Blackpool, but when you watch the DVD back it's kinda funny when he falls back over a crouched-down Cas player.

I have so many memories of our time in the National Leagues that make it really shocking to see how far we have come.

The seasons when we would come back empty handed from away days at Donny and Fev, Batley would hammer us every year and Leigh were the team to beat.

I remember going to Barrow and us only scraping a draw thanks to a late Mark Cain drop goal.

Going to the McAlpine stadium to play Hudds in the league and Whetu scoring a fantastic try



We had some memorable players back then too. Lynton Stott (remember his amazing tackle on the Salford player to win the game at our place?), Paul Mansson (my all time fave KR player), Frank Watene scoring against York by chasing up his own kick

Jimmy Walker chinning Carvell at the derby game.

When you consider how far we have come to now being a top four super league team, it really is amazing, hopefully in the next few seasons we can develop into a regular top 4 side with an eye on pushing Leeds and Saints all the way

Remember us getting stuffed at Don Valley, Millwards last game in charge. Anthony Farrell knocked us senseless

The 32-26 defeat at Cas in 05 I think was the game that really suggested to me we were going places. I didn't really mind the loss too much as I knew we were going to compete on all levels from then on in.

Climbing over the fence at Leigh was always fun, and the celery incident was quality.

Going up the hill at Batley was a true test, I heard there players did the warm up going up that!

The Dewsbury settee, anyone remember this? I wonder if it's still there? It was a classic and everyone used to fight to get on it,there had to be a record broken for the amount of people to sit on a sofa at one time.



Quality stuff.