Cheers for that, ive managed to get a few Macc Town fans to join me, so there will probably be 5 of us attending the game.

What the pubs like around the ground?

Dour to say the least! Its more a residential area, I'd be unsure what your best bet would be?

The Hope - 10 min walk probably the nicest/expensive.

The Height (various pubs) - too far.

The Weaste - 3 min walk, sruffy as. Utd pub.

The Chandos Sports & Social Club - Very nice, excellent beer, clean & welcoming (small). 5 min walk

The Conservative Club - 5 second walk, slightly less scruffy than The Weaste.

The Grey Mare - Decent but out of the way. 10 min walk

The Ashley Brook - Never been in, never wanted to. 10 min walk

The Pendleton British Legion - Very nice but again out of the way. 15 min walk

Eccles (various) - Easy reach to ground by Tram, some good some bad. Depends how much time you got.

All fine establishments if you ask me

Macc Red; if you have Sky, have a watch of State of Origin at 5pm. If you're not familiar with the concept, State of Origin is an annual 3 match series between New South Wales and Queensland. It's basically as good as RL gets. I hear this year, as well as being screened in the UK, Europe, NZ and the far east, it was also screened for the first time in central and southern Africa and to a potential audience of 40 million people in America. So clearly a big deal... Some argue that in generations to come, as big as if not bigger than the Superbowl!!! It really should be...

Con Club on weaste lane 50p to get in but it's nice and cheap.

Edited for accuracy.

Just to add my two penn'orth:

The Weaste - improved of late
The Grey Mare - gone down hill a bit of late
Ashley Brook - nice boozer. Holts.

Talking about places to drink, the Willows needs mentioning. There are two bars inside the ground behind the posts that fans can use. The downstairs Tavern is more like a pub, and the upstairs in a large cabaret room that let you overlook the pitch and watch the under 20s game befor hand (usually). Neither the quality of the beer or the pricing is great, but it's a decent starting point for new fans as you'll be in a rugby atmosphere (in some of the pubs in the area nobody knows there's a game on). If you go into any turnstile you can go in these bars.

With the bars inside the ground is the rules on taking a beer into the stand the same as football grounds, I saw a few people on saturday taking beers to the seats?

Obviously the Willows is terracing so may be a different story.

But all good info, Cheers peeps, I did watch the State of Origin game, I learnt a little bit more.

No problem. Just make sure you've got a plastic pot.

Good stuff, think im going to enjoy my new RL life..

if you are unsure about why a decision is made ask the person next to you we are all glad to help new fans and if you are unlucky and stand next to me you will probably get full match commentry

Be aware, there are three constants from whomever you ask:

1. This referee has never liked us and gives us nowt
2. They're all offside
3. Their last past was forward

There was a fourth called 'FEEDING!' but it evaporated around the same time competitive scrums did.

My summary of my Willows experience..

arrived at about half 6 after spending a few hours trekking around the Trafford Centre, parking was alright went down one of the streets, didn't have any problems... collected my tickets and ventured round to the Weaste Con Club.. It helped that the weather was great and was able to chill outside with a beer.

Got inside and stood in the Shed, just to the right of the dugouts.. Other than the first 5 minutes the game was good, should have been alot more of a convincing win.

Definatley enjoyed my first game, great to start off with a win and im looking forward to my next few games against Warrington, Castleford and Crusaders..

My Rugby League supporting life starts now, and im very excited about it..

Good to hear it Macc Red. Hopefully the shed atmosphere will return before the season's out. There's simply no stand in RL quite like the shed when it's on form. A highly competitive performance versus Wire could bring the punters back in.