All the good points have been mentioned so i won't repeat them..
But after an excellent season i felt extremely flat after the playoff defeat V Hull...We missed IMO a great opportunity there...

It was a fantastic season, but the Saints defeat at KR was one of the best games of the year even though we lost. I remember Nat Wood scored towards the end after a Lima break, backed up by Baby Gleese and then Wood juggling the ball then eventually went under the sticks. Then Grose was penalised for sod all by the linesman then Saints equalised, then the DG was enevitable. Never left a game so gutted!!

We really should have won that first playoff game at home against Hull, but even if we had I think the trip to Odsal next week would have been too much for us. Bradfordwere unstoppable for the last couple of months of that season, in their last 7 games Vainikolo got 17 tries and him and Hape just tore everyone up. Even Warrington at their best of 2005, would not have been able to live with Bradford at that point in time, it must have been galling for their fans knowing that basically that team was going to disintegrate at the end of the year because loads of their players had signed for other teams.

When did you stop believing in PC Sally? You are usually reasonably insightful - were you an early adopter or part of the long tail ?

The 2nd half of the Bradford match at odsal was just fantastic, considering we had no Briers and Nat Wood had gone off injured at the end of the first half, Iestyn Harris scores for Bradford early in the 2nd half and I'm stood there thinking 'how many are we gonna get beat by today'.

The Bradford match at home comes to mind also, where both teams were playing in white!

And I'm sure that this was the year where the dark clouds came over and it chucked it down just before the start of the home Salford match, mixed with the dramatic pre-match music - it was like a scene out of independance day.

And who can forget Grose's full length try at the JJB, think he even had time to have a chat with Bridge on his way to the line.

Great memories these. The greatest game?.......Dead right.

And although the play off loss was a massive disappointment, having the best player in the world at the HJ playing for the Wire will live with us forever.

I was still a big fan of Cullen in 2005, in 2006 I started to think that we were never going to do anything better than we had already done under Cullen, and to win trophies we needed a coach who had been there and won trophies before (Lang, Folkes, Hanley, Smith, Murray, Noble). From what I remember you had crossed the divide a year or so earlier...?

2005 was a mixed year really. After the hype of the new stadium it was a time where we dared to believe things might be on the turn for us, but unfortunately it affirmed us as a club with fur coat & very little knickers - in the right light & with little pressure we looked fantastic, demolitions of Wakefield, Widnes & gritty wins against Bradford & Hull back this up; however when the going got tough at the business end of the season we fell woefully short.

The Johns Effect was a little like the Emporer's New Clothes to me - we dared to be carried away by the hype, the club played it fantastically & the players & Johns played their parts too. However at the end of the day he wasn't fit & didn't have long enough at the club to be able to have impact on the pitch other than in the Leeds game where the fairytale was in full swing. Hull away & at home in the play-off showed how even the best in the world needs players around him able to match his brilliance in order to progress - away at the KFC we carried though on the back of a gutsy forward performance (particularly from Logan Swann) & a player wanting to show the home fans what he was capable of (TKL). Hull at home was awful & showed how a well coached team with a flexible game plan will beat a team playing on emotion 9 times out of 10 with Brough's barrage of Chris Bridge on the wing. I think that game started to show the flaws in Cullen's package for me.

Relegating Widnes will always be a special match, as will be any win at Odsal but ultimately our side of galacticos were sadly missing the "X-Factor" Cullen often spoke about - only here it was off the pitch we were starting to show lacking.

Players of the season - Gleeson, Fa'afili & Briers formed a lethal partnership down the right with Grose immense as an attacking fullback the like of which Wire had not seen since Brian Johnson's heyday. In the pack, Clarke was showing his worth with Wainwright Swann & Westwood forming an intimidating back row while Lightbulb had his best season for us. And farewell to *** ****, a player who typified Wire - unpredictable, sometimes brilliant, an entertainer who was occassionally awful & quite often ignoring the blindingly obvious pass to try & go it alone only to mess things up!

I'd made my mind up after the terrible 2004 season. Hopes and expectations were high, and we underperformed in an unacceptable way. 2005 was indeed better in terms of league position but at no stage did I ever feel our underlying problems were solved and we were in danger of winning anything.

I feel that now under Tony Smith. I'm sure you will agree all I ever called for was a coach with a credible coaching CV and a proven winner.

The funny thing is that if PC had gone earlier we would not have got Smith. I suppose there was an upside in Cullen desperately scrambling to remain in position when he should have done the decent thing and resigned earlier.

Anyway I wish him well with Widnes but I don't think for one minute he will coach a SL side again.

i think he will. widnes.

They'll get bumped behind Toulouse and South Wales RL in line for a SL license.

[sizeI'm joking of course.[/size

Hull KR in the CC the decider?

I did that for you.

Stood on an open terrace at Brentford in Round 1 freezing my knackers off. Threw that game away in the last 15. We all started chanting "theres only one paul cullen" because we thought we seen him come out of the tunnel in the far corner and it wasnt even him.

Bradford at Odsal. First win there since 93? First time we did the double as well? Chris Bridge was outstanding.

I had moved away from Warrington at that point but the Joey game was still very special. Huge dissapointment losing to FC at home. They were by far the better team that day.

Spanking Widnes at home and Faffili try celebration.

Really enjoyed this season.