Quote: lefty goldblatt "
Since SL's inception in 96, Widnes have largely been poop. They're almost an irrelevance, now. Look at that side, and it's "never heard of, never heard of, crap, kid, never heard of". Compare this to what I've witnessed in nearly 40 years of this fixture. Tamati, Lyndon, Gregory, Burke, Myler, Offiah, Sorenson, Shearer, Hulme(s), Mckenzie Wright etc.
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This is true but was also true in the period of 2002 to 2005 and in those days the spirit of the derby was rekindled, they were probably our biggest most tasty fixtures of those seasons (probably because the two clubs were roughly similar in ability until they fell away in the last year).
But also - the Man Utd v Man City derby kept its spark through the 1990s and 2000s, when City had two decades of being poop like Widnes have now, and United spent two decades winning everything which Warrington very definitely haven't done. Actually I'm not sure the United / City derby is any better now than it was then, despite the clubs now being rivals at the top.
The Liverpool v Everton derby has also kept its spark despite having an uneven record although admittedly I don't think it's how it was in the 1980s or early 1990s.