I heard your first posts were in latin it was so long ago !

And ultimately that was the issue.
Myself/Conroy etc. Used to work closely with Wigan stadium safety people and through that we used to have contact with other grounds and their safety people.
Some were very accommodating and others not so much.
By sticking by the rules we were chipping away at what each would and wouldn't allow and along with that when clubs wouldn't allow things Wigan would back us.
For example for the 2011 semi final at Warrington against saints, Warrington wouldn't allow anything.
However believe it or not the RFL and the BBC supported us and asked Warrington to reconsider.
I went down to the ground 3 days before and worked with the safety people and found out what they would and wouldn't allow and we managed to agree and after the game they contacted me to praise everyone and thank us.

However as I say others wanted to go their own way and do things without seeking permission etc. I predicted it wouldn't work and I think most people will agree it's not been the same since even for those who have stepped forward in then last couple of years to try and work with the club and recreate it.

There was a lot of other work went on behind the scenes and I thought we had a good balance. We supported the club with certain things and they supported us.

We had 2 supporters nights with 100 + at each night and raised into the thousands which we split between the flag group and charity such as Wigan hospice and Macmillan nurses.
The club gave us season tickets to raffle and raise funds plus other things.
We had the merchandise selling well (300 pin badges and about 300 scarves were made and sold).

Bit of a shame, but as Brian potter said "can't go back".

Every away game now I see the same ultra faces and smoke bombs and things kicking off (I didn't post but I saw some stuff at saints away that wasn't pleasnt on both sides) and the same faces are always in the frame.

And thise would hide behind anything organised now so that's why I wouldn't do it again.

It's a massive shame, makes you wonder if those scenes will ever be recreated. Essentially a few idiots spoiled it for everyone with their own selfish agenda.

Fun times.

That semi final vs Saints at the HJ has to go down as arguably the best atmosphere I’ve seen. The colour and noise was untrue! Never to be re-created unfortunately.

It’s only a fortnight ago that a small number of ‘supporters’ set off a smoke bomb before a match and therefore turning the whole stand into an alcohol-free zone!

It’s only a matter of time before true Wigan supporters are banned from watching their own team on the road!

Certainly didn't mean to leave you out of the Names I mentioned earlier
It was the peak for me but I think you'll remember the Meeting at the Anvil (I say meeting but in reality we just got together for a drink, a chat and come up with a few ideas) when the Rot started to set in?
3 or 4 New faces were brought along and suddenly 5or6 of approximately 15/20 of us started going down a different route.
Well, some of those 3/4 new faces back then are some of the same faces that are always about when the Smoke Bombs go off.
To be fair some of them have learned, instead of themselves being caught with them they now let other young kids set them off and let them get caught instead.
In a little over 18months we went from nowhere to some fantastic Flags & Displays and EVERYONE who was involved deserves credit (The fund raising, designing and selling the scarves etc. to raise funds - The designing of the flags - ordering them - putting them up) and it was just a shame in my opinion that some people couldn't be a bit more patient and understand that it needed to be policed etc.
Within 6 months it had virtually finished.

Back on Topic

March 2004 for me

As an aside I was thinking myself a couple of weeks ago of starting a Topic along the lines of "Where are they now" or "Who can get an old member to post".

Would certainly like to see more traffic coming through here and more variety of posters.

Loved the supporter nights and thought the WCC was the best v st george, you guys did the club proud that day was fantastic. People just jumped on the bandwagon and didnt see the hard work you guys did behind the scenes. Even Matty taking out flags to France for us etc, but made some friends so thankful for that.

like the current VT

A couple of my favourites. The Grand Final 2010 when the big We Are Wigan Flag was positioned at the end of the Stadium. I know how much work went into getting permission for that.

Then the Saints Magic Weekend game at the Etihad Stadium. The noise in the concourses after the game was incredible.

Sadly as JS has posted it has been ruined by a minority who wanted their own way and weren't prepared to listen. What was a fantastic idea has now become a stick for other clubs to beat us with and I don't think we can get it back, unfortunately.

The regular meet-ups at the Anvil were great. Initially putting faces to names of strangers and then over a couple of years becoming good mates!

The perks of being involved was a tour of the stadium on WCC Final day, even throwing the match ball around the dressing room! Something the normal fan never gets chance to do! Although I must say I don’t miss going up the top gantry of the South Stand to put the flags up, legs were like jelly!

The two flag night out at the Cricket Club were superb! Photos with the SL trophy, flags lined up on the walls, great prizes on offer, buffet and bar! Plus a chance to speak to Billy B and Bill Ashurst! My missus had a ten minute chat with Bill (about all sorts) as he was sat at our table, she’d never heard of him but said he was an absolute gent! She was surprised when I told him he’s arguably the toughest player we’ve ever had with the fiercest reputation!

Like I said....great times!

I used to have a different username but the December 2001 join date for the oldest members isn't correct. That date, which is the same for the first 1,000 or so users, was just when the site was resurrected after its first major catastrophic server failure (or whatever happened) so all posters with that date will have actually been around longer. All the post counts got reset then as well.

The actual start was August 2000ish, and I remember the first big thing was the 2000 World Cup.

(see rl was by far the most prolific poster in the early days and would work his way around every single club board winding folk up. But everyone knew he was doing it and it was all very tongue in cheek. Although there could be some massive bust ups, because there were only maybe around 20 really regular posters it didn't get too crazy. Raffy and Bigs from the Wire were probably the most annoying.

I think DaveO was posting on here from a cave wasnt he? There was nobody else on here to read his posts but then again, nobody reads them now

December 2003.