Yes you are quite right, apologies.

2016 Lost 12-6 with an awful 59 minutes of watching the game drift away not being able to score after Patton scored
2018 Lost 12-4 with an awful 68 minutes of watching the game drift away not being able to score after Charnley scored.

To this day they haunt me, but not as much as 2013. We should've had that one done and dusted.

Thewlis is nowhere near as fast as some of the players discussed here. Not sure why people have that impression. He's been easily run down on a few breaks by faster players.

Because on other occasions he's also been like off a shovel.

Yep 1990. I remember that was my first visit to Wembley as a spotty 14 year old. I remember leading up to the game thinking we could do it but recently watched highlights on YouTube and looking at the line ups we never stood a chance. It is the hope that gets you and as a great man once said the ghosts crowd the young childs fragile eggshell mind.
I never really got over that and all the other finals and semi finals sort of 5 years either side of that at Burnden Park, Old Trafford, Maine Rd, Reebok, McAlpine etc.
The 2009 Semi final went some way towards silencing the lambs but then you add a couple of grand final defeats.

One fact that I heard the other day and I don't remember this was that the week before Wembley in 1990 we played Wigan in the first round of the premiership play offs. Guess what, it was a narrow defeat for us.

I have learned to live with it a bit better but a win against Wigan would save me a lot of money on therapy. Plus the bet that I put on at the start of the year would net me £350 might have something to do with it.

Guess our definitions of someone with real pace differ. I've honestly never seen Thewlis run and thought he was rapid. I'd describe him as 'fast enough' as he can finish most situations that come his way. When it requires real pace to finish, go the length or go round someone to make a clean break he's not your man.

What I will say is that Thewlis has the best sidestep in the first team and he's using it well to make good ground on his scoots and sometimes break the line by wrong footing someone.

You were spot on mate.