I remember the classic 1985 final wigan v hull. wigan took 40k plus down to wembley. that was superb.

I've managed to get hold of club wembley tickets through work. They may be a bit corporate (no Wigan shirts allowed) but they're free and right in the middle of the Wigan end. Can't wait.

I may not go this year for a variety of reasons, and will make my mind up fairly late in the piece, like I did last year.

Most of the factors have nothing to do with Rugby, but Challenge Cup finals with Leeds in them hold no special fondness for me. I tend to enjoy the day, wherther Leeds are there or not, but having missed '99 for family reasons, I have been to 9 CC finals. 6 of those featured Leeds and we've lost all of them. The prospect of making it 7 doesn't help. It isn't the real reason I may not go, but it might, if I'm really honest with myself, affect the motivation to move certain obstacles around.

I have enjoyed some fairly heroic defeats in 1994, 2003 and 2005, which were excellent games, but how many times do I want to see the same script? I've also seen some embarrassing pastings in 1995, 200 and 2010. The day out can be fun, but again, been there, done that. Plus, the only time I haven't been to the final when we've been involved we won, so Mr Hethrington should be bloody well grateful if I don't go!

I think there is also a strong feeling that if Mr Hethrington wants fans to part with more of their money to support his team, he needs to show that the club has ambitions to match the fans. I don't share that belief myself, but it's certainly out there.

We may lose, who knows (I doubt it, but after seeing Wigan lose to the Eagles nothing would surprise me!), but I would be amazed if Brent Webb plays anything like as well as Radders did that day.

Those of us who travelled in hope rather than expectation to the 2002 final were rewarded that day with one of the greatest individual performances in the history of British RL - Radders was absolutely sensational. Saints fans have never forgiven him for it.

what a great occassion that would be, after the final hooter at the Bradford game for Rads to come on the pitch and present Wembley shirts to the 17 mighty warriors who will do battle with the "whinos"

Thats crazy!

Good plan. You might want to monitor a few bumps and knocks after the game and in training the following week before you name the squad though.

Not wanting to rain on too many parades or anything.

I think a mystery 'race against time' injury sort of story in the press is in order from us next week!

The combination of poor form, last seasons disappointment (plus a long line of Challenge Cup final failures) and the fact that many believe you'll hammer us (not that I agree with the latter) has led to the poor sales.

It doesn't surprise me at all, we've been fed on success for a few years, and a couple of poor seasons has seen the floating fans disappear as quickly as they arrived, something which the Wigan faithful are probably familiar with themselves. I understand some may not be going for financial reasons but I wouldn't miss it for the world.

But in all honesty I couldn't care less if you have more fans than us, because as I've said elsewhere, having more fans in the ground doesn't win you anything.

Quality ,


That would confuse Gaz Hock , he'd think he have another game that night if he had 2 shirts at once

Of course.

We saw that in 2002 and it could happen again this year. The beauty of 2002 from my point of view was that I knew that all the Wigan fans at the ground were the real hardcore supporters that will go to games even if they're pretty confident it will end in defeat. We all went to have a good day out and didn't expect a result and what we got in the end was a day that will live long in the memory.

When we lifted that trophy it didn't matter if we had 10, 10,000 or 100,000 fans in the ground to me. All that mattered was we'd beaten the old Enemy in a cup final and we had final that would be remembered forever as The Kris Radlinski final.

Great day.

I live in hope

We saw that in 2002 and it could happen again this year. The beauty of 2002 from my point of view was that I knew that all the Wigan fans at the ground were the real hardcore supporters that will go to games even if they're pretty confident it will end in defeat.

i remember my father in law saying your not wasting your time and money going to watch wigan getting beat. and my wife said do you think we would miss a wigan / saints final.the rest as they say is history

Yes we were there and thoroughly enjoyed the day in Bonny Scotland.

God bless Kris Radlinski's toe, I bet Mo was sucking the poison out all night

"God bless Kris Radlinski's toe, I bet Mo was sucking the poison out all night".

Close your eyes and try and imagine the above scene without throwing up.