I know what you mean in relation to a general malaise. Some home games are a hard watch and thats even with us as dominant as we have been. There's nothing worse than seeing a sp away end or in some cases even closed and a handful of away fans put in the corner of the North Stand.

Its why I am happy that tickets for the away stand could perhaps be given free to schools. We did something similar at the Toulouse game at home where we were presented with the LLS. Home Bargain employees were given free tickets and the East Stand looked much better 3/4 full.

There's now only 2 games a season where that away end is full- Wigan and Warrington (and not always full with Warrington) so there can be a really poor atmosphere for the majority of home games.

I always get a season ticket out of loyalty to the club, but then Thursday night games in February in the soulless DW with no away support when it’s on Sky do test the loyalty.

sounds like 2023 will be music to your ears....cant see the 'dominance' continuing

Whilst I think the competition looks like it may be getting more competitive it would take a brave man to bet big against Saints to win the GF again.

Cue the LeBron69 music

Here's the thing - no matter what they say, that Saints side isn't as good as it used to be. Same goes for Leeds, same goes for us, plus add in Bradford and it's reasonable to think what's the point? Is it to see Hudds, Cats or another team who offers nothing get given a place at the top table? All those home grown players. All those away fans adding to the general wealth of all clubs ...

I used to watch Newton Vs KFC, Scully Vs Faz, Long Vs Lam etc - all for a cheaper price than what I do now. We've not stagnated as a sport - we've gone back.

Interesting that quite a few on here fit in the lapsed fan category - I imagine there would be a high number of those in Wigan after Covid, financial pressures and the less than entertaining years under Adrian Lam.

When i used to go it was 125 quid for a adult season ticket in the South Stand! know it is 295 quid!

I am pretty sure warrington and st helens were the only times we opened the away end last season aswell in the regular season (and warringtons was poor by their standards). There was some very poor away followings to wigan this season, i think we did get our fair share of thursday nights though.

I get what you are saying. The Saints team under Woolf is the greatest defensive Saints team I've ever seen in nearly 40 years of watching us however when you think back to the early 2000s we had a prime Wellens, Long, Cunningham, Sculthorpe etc plus the likes of Newlove and Joynt.

Its different eras now though with Sports Science and GPS trackers etc, players take better care of their diets and there's much less players with real flair. Thats for a whole other conversation though so I'll try and get back on topic.

The reason I thought we were a hard watch at times last season is more to do with the standard of the opposition and the fact that some games were won by HT. That coupled with the non-existent away support often made a second half meaningless.

However it does seem sometimes that we are misty eyed and nostalgic but only remember the good times. Some Saints fans seem to recall that Knowsley Road was packed out every week and with a great atmosphere. That wasn't the case at all, many weeks I was there with it half full and like a library. The problem of course is that given we have only been in the new stadium since 2012 then clearly there aren't many great memories and occasions to have been created as yet so all the great memories come from the old days.