As a cas fan I agree with this, we've already beaten everyone at home so if we dont win our home semi we don't deserve to be in the gf. maybe most of my fellow cas fans are listening to opposing fans who say we're a 1 season wonder, but the way I see it is finishing 4,5,5 and poss 1st isn't something you can fluke over 4 consecutive seasons and as our coaching staff and most of our best players are signed up for the next few years I would be very surprised if we're not challenging for top 4 during the next few years.

Good luck for the 8's although you won't need it you're not a bottom 4 team and I'll be surprised if you don't finish top.

Insightful analysis. The most likely explanation I heard at the time was that Maurice Lindsay, a man who was always prepared to ride roughshod over others to get his way, realised that the sell-out to Murdoch would be problematic given that some clubs would clearly miss out financially, possibly forever. How to get it through, then? Answer, use an age-old technique: propose something totally intolerable and therefore make the slightly intolerable more appealing. The 'merger idea' was the totally intolerable: he knew it was just smoke and mirrors but the sheer horror of it made embracing the Murdoch deal with club structure intact suddenly the better option. Old Mo wins again.

Actually it's believed when the club was first formed they played on Wharf Meadow, where Riverside Retail Park now is: still north of the river though.

All but three of the club's grounds have been 'north side', being those just south of St James' church and the old and new Wilderspool sites slightly further south, where we spent over a hundred years!

As an aside, I've a major query on the claim we moved to the 'main' Wilderspool site in 1898 as is widely believed, as I've uncovered evidence that throws this into doubt. It's an area worthy of more research, but sadly not likely something I'll be able to make time for soon.