https://youtu.be/mjLC_vqhfZ0 Warrington vs Wigan...WW111! Exactly 30 years ago.... I was there and has such great day.... Younger fans watch and enjoy...older fans please share your memories.

https://youtu.be/mjLC_vqhfZ0 Warrington vs Wigan...WW111! Exactly 30 years ago.... I was there and has such great day.... Younger fans watch and enjoy...older fans please share your memories.

The game kicked off 9 mins late too. So many fans wanting to get in.

We should have walked that game
Instead it was an "honourable" draw
From memory, we didn't do much in the second half.

Shame there are only 1st half highlights there but then again maybe not as we didn't score in the second half and they clawed back a 15-15 draw out of it.

What a player Les Boyd was. You don't see props play that way any more - playing at second receiver running at the defence at an angle, drawing men in to him then putting someone through a gap. Some of it will be down to defences being better organised and faster off the mark these days but he was a rare player with such power and ball skills.

I remember reading Cullen saying he was in the best form of his career around this time and Mal Reilly who was GB coach at the time was at this game and any chance he had of playing for GB disappeared after the Goodway incident. I think the GB centres at that time were Paul Loughlin and David Stephenson.

Wigan were already a great side by this point but they hadn't started hoarding everyone else's top players to build the squad depth they had later, so fixture congestion caused by them doing well in cups could bite them at this sort of time. They were missing a few players in this game: Joe Lydon, Henderson Gill, Dean Bell, Nicky Kiss and their line up doesn't seem as strong as it would be later on. This was the era when Widnes nicked a couple of championships off them.

It was also an era where Warrington wins over that Wigan side were still common. The season before, Wigan had gone through the whole season losing only two league games - home and away to us. In this season, although the WW3 game is the one everyone remembers, we beat Wigan twice at Central Park in the second half of this season, including in the Premiership playoffs.

But by the start of 1988, Warrington were not the team they had been a couple of years earlier in the peak Tony Barrow era. Around this time we were starting to get the kind of frustrating inconsistency that would hang around Wire for years. We went in to this game having just lost the derby to Widnes, and our next two games we lost to Hunslet and Hull. We were 2nd in the table on New Year's Day but finished 6th. The next year, despite big signings in Steve Roach and Phil Blake for his second spell, we finished 11th, one place above relegation.

Full 80 mins too, barring yellow/red cards.

Defences may be quicker but there was only a 5 yard mark in those days I think, hence creative halfbacks.

I was sat up in the main stand, not far from the bloke who spent most of every match shouting “knock his yed off”.

When goodway got his orders I remember thinking we’ve won this now, but then Felt the numbness taking hold as Cullen started and continued his suicide run after goodway.
It’s the only thing I recall from the game, what a prick Cullen was

After the game Andy Gregory fuming that he only got losing pay for a draw at Wigan, when it was winning pay at Warrington. He was on a proper tantrum.

I remember that as clear as day, it was like time stood still. Everyone in the stadium could see it coming, everyone except Goodway of course.

I saw Cullen turn his head slightly so he could see Goodway pass.
Still the funniest moment was the frustration of Tony Barrow. You can see him on the clip proper throwing his toys out, knowing Cullen through away our advantage.

one of my all time favourite games...even though it was a draw and we should have won (Cullen brain fart cost us...although being stamped on deliberately is hard to ignore). Boyd was immense. The try from Johnno under the sticks was pure class...still gives me goose bumps listening to that. The commentator always makes me chuckle....you can really hear him suffering in the cold weather on top of snookers...he probably ended up with pneumonia after that.

I remember walking up into the Fletcher street end and seeing the steam coming off the crowd.

This was a time when "we all hate wigan" really meant something.

I think the pace and athleticism today has changed the game so much, the creativity of old wouldn't have worked today.

You see things in old footage that aren't part of the game today. There wasn't the same urgency at dummy half - hookers amble up to the playtheball, looking around considering their options. Today they are a lot more hurried and the distribution comes out faster.

Passes in general are crisper and faster today. When you watch old style footage players throw the ball similar to how amateur players do. The ball wobbles in the air and they aren't afraid to put the ball high in the air to give a cut out pass. It wasn't unusual for a halfback to throw a pass that would cut out 2 or 3 players, sometimes bounce on the ground for a winger with a big overlap. Today that kind of thing is easy pickings for an interception. The professionals throw fizzing flat torpedo passes.

Also back then you'd have the switch moves where a player would get the ball, stand still and turn his back to the play and someone would come from behind him running in the opposite direction to the way the play was going to receive the ball. Mike Gregory used to do this. It involves a player being static for 1/2 full seconds. These days anyone trying that would be crunched.

With players being semi professional and forwards having to play 80 minutes, the halfbacks would be able to find players in the defensive line who lacked mobility but you don't get that today. The best halfbacks of today, Cronk, Thurston, Pierce etc base their game around pace, strength and variety of kicking as thats what is needed to break a defence down.

Agree with the pace and athleticism but I'm pretty confident that Andy Gregory, Scofield, Myler et al would still shine today.

Also regarding the fizzing flat torpedo passes - I am still amazed at how Warrington players manage to pass above the receivers head from a play the ball or scrum base. I have seen some fizzing flat torpedo passes into touch too.

"The best halfbacks of today, Cronk, Thurston, Pierce etc base their game around pace, strength and variety of kicking" - that's probably why I find the game dull now.

Not one game at the HWJ has matched the excitement, passion and atmosphere of the WWIII game. Not one.

I don't recall any game at the HJ eclipsing many that were played with that middle to later 80s side of Warrington.

Truly a great period in the club's history - it saw the average crowd in the 85/86 season at Wilderspool of 3,743 increase to the eye-watering figure of 5,225 average by the end of the decade.

Many great days just like the defeat to Hunslet that followed the great New Year's Day game with Wigan. It was such consistency of performance that saw the 3rd place finish of that season followed by 6th, 8th, 11th, 8th and 9th finishes in the following seasons. How anybody could suggest that finishing top of the table in 2016 and reaching both the season's finals might be considered successful against the beautiful rugby played in that period is beyond belief.

Funny how stark statistics sometimes play havoc compared with people's actually memories hey?

Happy days! Remember it so well, and have to say Boyd is still the best prop I have seen..