2002 was the closest we came to being relegated, and the most depressing season most of us can remember because we just had too little flair in the team. Anderson had brought in wholesale changes in the off season, we had to cut our cloth financially so the type of player we brought in was very different, we got Domic, Rodwell, Marquet and Burns from the NRL, some NL players like Sturm and Crouthers, some unfulfilled talents Fozzard, Cardoza and Rivett. Craig Weston had initially joined but backtracked and went back to Widnes. Despite the low key signings a lot of us were looking forwards to a new start under Anderson who spoke well and made all the right noises about focusing on youth development. However he turned out to be a disastrous appointment, antagonising lots of the squad especially the younger players.

The most damaging problem was the pre season conditioning programme, we went into the season seriously underprepared and it hurt us all year. Anderson’s plan was to undercondition them in the pre season so as to leave “energy in the tank”, and instead of being in peak condition for round 1 we would be in peak condition for round 10. Problem was when round 10 came we were joint bottom of the league.

We started at Barrow in a mudbath in the Challenge Cup, then got Saints at home so it was a short lived Cup campaign. Then the league started, with us 16-0 down at half-time to Halifax, which set the tone for what was to come. We actually came back and won that game, with Cardoza and Kidwell getting late long range tries. We would only win one more game in the first half of the season.

As often happens at Wire it was Easter that things really went bad, we lost to Salford, Widnes and Wakefield, all teams we needed to be picking up points against. The main scapegoats, Anderson and Rodwell, left, but things were no better.

We got one really impressive win away at Hull with Briers kicking three drop-goals, but he tried the same strategy away at Halifax and kicked five only for us to lose in the last minute. It was a sign of how much we were struggling, we had no strike players in the team with Hunte and Kohe-Love leaving, all we could do was fire pot shots at goal from distance.

The board put some money into the team midway through the season to try and get us some spark and they made some decent signings, Nat Wood, Appo and Westwood. Wood was the one who made an immediate impact, Appo wasn’t fit and took till the last month of the season to get in shape, and nobody would have thought that year that Westwood would eventually go onto be one of our best ever SL signings. Danny Halliwell came in from Halifax on loan and scored a few tries, also coming in was an 18 year old Richie Mathers.

The new signings improved things a bit and crucially we beat our relegation rivals Wakefield and Salford, without those wins we would have been marooned because we didn’t beat anyone else apart from a great win away at Leeds with Briers kicking a drop goal at the end (not for the last time). It looked like it wouldn’t be pretty but we would struggle to survival.
Then Knowsley Road came and we got smashed 72-2, and we looked absolutely flat the next week at home to a generally unimpressive Castleford side. Plange got sacked and in came Paul Cullen. We had six games to go and won two, away at Halifax and home to Castleford, those were enough to keep us up so we didn’t need to beat Salford and Wakefield in our final two games (just as well because we got whacked).

Typical 2002 team: Penny; Smyth, Westwood, Burns; Rivett; Briers, N Wood; Hilton, Clarke, Laughton; Marquet, Guisset; Domic (Fozzard, P Wood, Noone, O’Reilly)

So let the memories begin...

oh dear.... what a year that was!

My debut season as a fan/supporter.

was gonna say 2002 was the worst year of my life but i did get married that year

It was my first full year as a warrington fan

Burns putting THAT ball dead at home to Cas. The closest i have ever been to tears watching the Wire, primarily because i knew the months of anguish were over, and we were safe. Hairs standing up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. Made Wembley this year all the more special.

Still sticks in my memory! HAVE IT!

The game at Leeds was a classic aswel, stood there in the pooring rain all game! Nearly caught the drop goal aswel, landed 2 steps infront (just a little bit far to dive for)

It's the ups & downs of being a (faithful) Wire fan

Having had so many false dawns it was great to shut the doubters up last year with our Wembley success; can't wait for next season to start

2002 - The only year I have been ashamed to be a Warrington fan

Not because of the awful rugby but because of the behaviour of a minority of our fans after some matches. The abuse given to some players ,who were with their families, was shocking.

Never understood why Rodwell got so much stick. If ever a season disintegrated the myth that Aussies didn't have an empathy for their SL clubs, Burns and Domic put it beyond any doubt.

The worst thing for me was, I went to every single league & cup game that year and got little reward.

The Hull game was memorable for me, not just the x amount of drop goals we scored, but the fact it was one of Shaun McRae's milestone games in charge of Hull, so I was expecting to be on the receiving end of a thrashing that day.

I'll never forget that Leeds game, on a Tuesday night IIRC in the pouring rain, it took forever for that drop goal to go over.

And finally, Castleford at home. I didn't ever hear the hooter go that day. I just remember everyone cheering at once and realised we'd stayed in Super League for another year.

IMO if it hadn't been for that dreadful season, we wouldn't be where we are now. When Paul Cullen came in he inserted some passion into the team, and later some optimistic ambition. Its a tale of rags to riches in just seven years.

I would love to see Saints fans stick by their team in times like that. Fairplay to the guy who had that as his debut year and carried on watching

It was my first year as a season ticket holder and what a year it was. I remember going up to Barrow with my Dad for the challenge cup game and winning 10-0 on a mudbath pitch and after the performance that day I was reasonably concerned for the rest of the season.

Moments that stand out in 'THAT' season were the comeback at home to Halifax in the first game, where Kidwell scored the winner and ran 50 yards with the ball in one hand above his head. All the Warrington fans around me had their hearts in their mouths as he did that. The wins away at Leeds and Hull stand out and so does the day we secured safety at home to Cas. The lowest I felt that seson was the Easter period and also losing away to Widnes, in Cullens first game in charge? I really thought we were down that day.

I can’t agree that with Sally that 2002 was one of the most depressing years; looking back on 2002 now I realise that I thoroughly enjoyed supporting us through the 2002 season.

We were crap but we knew we were crap. No false hopes or false dawns. The previous season I had become disenchanted with the un-fulfilled promises that came with big names signing to the extent that I missed what was probably the only match I missed for many seasons by carrying out a one man boycott of Van-De-Velde’s last game at Wakefield (I believe DVDV is still emotionally damaged by my actions).

The 2002 season engaged you as a fan like no other and evoked all the emotions that sport is capable of. The Wire dragged you along kicking, screaming and crying whilst all the time a nervous wreck with only one or two moments of pleasure that were heightened by the dross they emerged from to the point they became pinnacles of orgasmic ecstasy.

2002 gave us Sid Domic. At times we all call for the players to “just give us 100% effort and pride in the shirt”. Sid never gave us anything less; never, ever for a single minute during his time at Warrington, in or out of his match kit, never.

Nobody who was there could forget the mid-week, rain-drenched win at high-flying Leeds. Sid ran his blood to water that night to the extent where he, through exhaustion, collapsed on the pitch after the hooter. I must admit I had to drop to my haunches as well too when the hooter went; I was elated and following the Wire had left me emotionally drained. That night Sid as a player and myself (and not too many others that night) as a fan had given everything we had to get a win for the Wire, nothing was left in the tank. Driving to the match that night, with Big Dave and his lad, lack of hope had left us desolate; we were going down. Two hours later we knew that the team of mis-fits weren’t going to let the Wire be relegated for the first time ever without a fight.

The other memorable away win that season would be at Hull. Probably most memorable not so much for Rodwell having a great game but for the lack of Warrington fans in attendance. I’ll go with wires71’s assessment from earlier in the week of less than a 100 and I’ll bet if you line up our following at the first away game next season I’ll be able to pick out fifty of them. Not because I know them to speak to or by name but because I recognise their faces from year after year of trekking back and to across the M62. Same faces year after year. They’ve been supplemented by many new faces as our support has grown but go to Hull again last year and amongst the 150 or so their last year I’ll bet at least half made the trip to Hull back in 2002. Loyal and true through the good and not so good.

Barely a week went by in 2002 without something happening at the club. Anderson’s three year master plan being ripped to shreds in three months to be replaced by Plange’s “love-shack” and finally the returning local lad to save the day in Cullen. Loan signings a plenty – some good like Mathers but mostly bad or even worse. On-off signing of Turley; relegation rivals offering us two of their best for them to stave off the creditors rather than relegation and for the players to go on and become two greatly appreciated players at Warrington in Wood and Westwood.

Finally 2002 gave us a glimmer of hope for the future as I think that is where Squadbuilder first took off. It’s certainly when I think I first joined as a member and probably the year I first came across Sally and his analytical questioning at Q&A’s with coaches, players and administrators.

When I think back to 2002 I think bad team, good support, good friends and a glimpse of a better future. From the bottom the only way is up, even if you have to slide down a few rungs of the ladder before you get to the top to lift the trophy. The 2002 season for me was the year we set out on our journey along the path to Wembley in 2009.