Tuesday 27th May 1997

Halifax Blue Sox 26-30 Bradford Bulls

Halifax Blue Sox
Tries: Dean (2), Gillespie 2 (9,23), Amone 2 (18,40)
Goals: Pearson 3/6

Bradford Bulls
Tries: McDermott (30), Knox (59), Spruce 2 (62,64), Scales (70), Loughlin (74)
Goals: McNamara 1/2, Loughlin 2/4

Half-time: 26-6
Penalty Count: Halifax 5-3 Bradford
Referee: David Campbell (Widnes)
Attendance: 6,252

I was only 12 at the time of this game but I remember it like yesterday, myself and my dad and his three friends left Bradford on the train and got to Halifax for around 3pm whereby we found the pub just up the road by the Bus Station.

Where all the talk beforehand was about Halifax's decision to add two pound to the admission price for the game, just because it was Bradford and we would bring at least two thousand.

But looking at the 6,200 crowd I guess many stayed away although from what I remember when being stood at the shed end, was that it was swarmed by Bradford supporters.

This for mine was the big game of the season and what a game with Halifax putting in a superb opening 40 minutes before the mother of all comebacks when for thw world it looked like it was beyond us.

Halifax went out to any earlier unassailable 20-0 lead before McDermott crashed over at the side of the sticks on thirty minutes which gave us some slight hope.

The Blue Sox in that opening half were white hot, with the relentless defence doing overtime to keep us at bay.

I remember saying to my dad at half-time that our 12 out of 12 record had gone and we wouldn't set a new record after St Helens had gone 12 in a row the previous year.

But then cue the unimaginable as the sheer brilliance of the Bradford attack cut the exhausted Halifax defence to bits.

This was James Lowes at his best as he worked dummy half to perfection sending Knox over to start the comebcak before the long high kick-off saw Spruce take the ball and go down on the Halifax line (back in these days the team that scored the try kicked off) before Scales took three Fax defenders over the line with him and all of a sudden the comeback was a reality.

We pulled the game back to 26-26 and Paul Loughlin had the chance to give us the lead for the first time but his conversion attempt hit the right post and bounced away.

But he made up for that miss just three minutes later when after a 50m Stuart Spruce run, Lowes spotted the Halifax defence at sixes and sevens and put in the grubber beyond them and then cue the biggest cheer of the season for mine (yes even bigger then the one at Don Valley and Odsal after we beat Paris 68-0 to lift the Championship) as Loughlin touched down the speculative kick to the corner and Widnes official Campbell awarded the dramatic winning score.

The conversion was missed but we didn't care, we were so elated at the drama that we had seen.

I didn't see it at the time but Matthew Elliot was jumping up and down with the supporters on the field as the 1997 Bradford Bulls had completed one of the greatest comebacks ever seen.

This game will live long in the memory.

I meowed with glee that day

I remember that game well. Still hurts even today. I blame myself for result because every match I always stood in the same place but on that occasion I had my eldest daughter with me and I stood somewhere else. I remember the elation at the first half but the second half was relentless one way traffic. It wouldn't have hurt so much but in was Bradford! I often think that this match signalled the start of the clubs gradual decline from the top flight.

I think it was the move to the Shay that killed you.

Is that the day of the infamous Asa Amone try?

It certainly was.
Was it Danny Peacock that he was goading from memory?

It was also the game that Paul Rowley pulled out of the team a couple of hours before the kick-off so Chris Chester nominally played "hooker".

Would we have won with him playing?

No, it was ultimately the end of the transfer system and the onset of contracts that killed us. Mr Gartland knew it would cost him so much more money.

The contract system was already in place and had been since the late late 1980's..

What killed us off was having to go fulltime as required by membership of Super League with gates of only 5000/6000 on average and no income from wet sales/dining/proper hospitality boxes.

The move to the Shay was good because we'd tipped over £1million into Thrum Hall between 1987 and 1996 and it was still archaic.

sad but true.

I never realised we were dead

I thought we just had a nervous breakdown, lost our job, forgot to cut up the credit card up and refused to shop at Aldi, so now were living with Father Jack Hackett.

But didn't the transfer system also die out? I remember players being seen as assets in the respect that you could sell them on at a hefty fee which made their initial purchase more attractive. I agree about the full time bit obviously - it was unsustainable without a backer. Makes you wonder how much the backers of Harlequins plough into the club.

We were still buying the likes of Holroyd and Cardiss in 1998/99.

I agree it was on it's last legs though.

Remember it well, think if i can be bothered looking i still have it on video.Great Days, Great Memories.