and Mark Preston playing on the wing.

may be happy him playing anywhere.

I can understand the sentiment towards TH, but dont know what the problem is with the Shay, i think its a great ground-especially when there is a decent number attending so that the away end needs opening (as would usually be the case in super league)

Did you ever see a match at Thrum Hall?

That confirms my point ,you could walk into an empty Thrum Hall when a match was`nt on and it still made you tingle I`ve gone down the Shay when there have been decent crowds and "nothing".Not complaining it`s what we`ve been dealt but to compare the two is laughable.

The Shay is an average ground that has no charactor like most new Stadiums. It does its job and its nice to play out of it but for me its not and never will be our spiritual home. I have been at the Shay with 3000 plus people against Widnes for example-but it lacks something special. It serves its purpose but thats it. Some people like myself miss Thrum hall at the unique atmosphere. At The Shay you are not really close to the players on the sides like at Thrum Hall. The Players do not have to walk through the crowd to the changing rooms like and get praise encouragement or run the gauntlet.

Thrum Hall had something extra. I have trained up at Thrum Hall with nobody in the Stands and and watched games with around 1000 others and there was a magic feel about the place. I cant describe it very well but Thrum Hall was a place where the oppossition hated to come. The Crowd on top of the players, The Slope and how to play the ground, The Atmospheric Sound coming out of the Scratchin Shed. Thrum Hall had so much history and for me not enough was done to save it-not just from the club but the Council etc. Wakefield, Salford and castleford have managed to survive playing out of these old stadiums and much of it in SL. I feel the club was too hasty in getting rid of the Stadium and I feel the decision angered many so that they did not feel part of the club anymore.

stop dwelling and mourning TH.

ITS GONE and will NEVER return.

embrace the shay and the future of fax.

small adjustments to the shay will make the ground as good if not better then TH imo.

I will express my thoughts as others do as this is a forum. I get behind Fax as much as I can but I do not think The Shay is a special place or is it the clubs spiritual home. the Shay does little for me as in my opinion it lacks so many charactoristics. I also would love to be closer to the action especially on the sides.

The shay will never be the spiritual home of FAX, that is TH.

But the shay has the makings of a superb ground and has much more scope than TH could of have had.

I think people have an immediate negativity towards the shay because it isn't TH. Thats wrong imo.

All fax fans need to embrace the shay (its here to stay) and learn to love it, and IMO the better points quickly become recognised. Its a very good ground thats evolving into an excellent one, be proud of it.

true, can never understand all those who stopped watching fax only because they left thrum hall. thought the team was the main thing to support not the ground.

It was the way it was done and many feel that the Club was no longer their club as Wood and co did whatever they wanted despite what the fans wanted. The name Blue Sox was one example. The Courier ran a competition for a new name and Bomber was the top one alongside a couple of others. Wood came up wi Blue Sox! A number of people felt the sale of Thrum Hall was rash and not done properly.I remember there was a lot of feelings about what was going on at fax as well as the game as a whole around 95/96. Widnes and Keighley were shafted by the RFL around this time I think as well.
Also a number of older fans were unhappy with switching to summer and felt the Sale of the Ground and having stupid nicknames was a step to far. That certainly was the case of my parents next door neighbours who had followed Fax for 30 years. They viewed summer for Holidays, Cricket and family events not Rugby.

That is so true, it was a very special place for us Fax fans!

The atmosphere on Friday nights for the a team games was brilliant, regular 4 figure crowd aswell.

And often more than down the Shay the same evening for the football.

And what about the tomato soup!?

remember they used to announce the town score and crowd , always raised a chuckle as fo the sump i think ive still got a scolded tongue 20 years later!