Hello everyone.
Thank you for posting these pics which have inspired me to join the forum.
I started watching Wigan in the 2nd division with the cup tie at saints the following season being my first away match which got me truly hooked.
Great memories, just thinking although there was a good feeling at the time little did we know just how good the years ahead would be -the 10 all at Bramley with Graeme West's late try are just as vivid as the trophies.
I managed to get hold of the saints game on video (David Stephenson's debut) but footage of the one in 1984 still eludes me - I rember my dad having the tries on video from Granada Reports.
Thanks for posting the pics!

Awesome thread, Brilliant!

Welcome, aboard.

Top, top thread. You can’t beat a trip down memory lane. I remember that when Westy scored the equalising try in the Bramley match there was a photo of it in ‘Open Rugby’. I was 7 or 8 at the time and my claim to fame was that I was in the background (out of focus) of that picture.

I lived in Huddersfield when we beat Wire 40-10. Was at Uni there and all my mates came over for a good booze up pre match. Remember that many exams that week were cancelled as there was a good foot to 18 inches of snow.

Students and booze up, now there's two things you rarely hear about !!!!!

Pondmonster - I remember that pic, I think I may still have that copy of Open Rugby and others in the attic. I'll go and have a look later and see what else is up there - that's my evening sorted then!

not posted anything on for a good while but this is possible the best thread to ever appear on here.

Gutted . I never saw Wigan play at Central Park.

Fantastic and quite emotional seeing old Central Park. Keep them coming.

It was 1988 - the giveaway are the fans stood on the perimeter track. I'm sure that many of you will remember the situation with fans that day - there were so many fans in the ground, that there was no room left on the terracing for fans who arrived just before kick-off; the stewards, therefore, placed hundreds (maybe more) on the sanded 'D' behind the posts!

It's also worth noting the crowd photo from the 1985 Final v Hull - there were 'unofficially' well over 100,000 on the ground that day and once you got your feet onto the terracing, you basically stayed there for the duration of the match! There were stories of gatemen letting several fans through the turnstiles at the same time and trousering cash - one of the Sunday tabloids did a piece a few weeks later after the Man Utd v Everton FA Cup Final claiming that some turnstile operators were taking cash and hiding it in the linings of their jackets!

I am very impressed with these i know am a widnes fan but half of my family are from wigan and went central park a few times when i went to my nan and grandads.

With all the old pictures on here it's got me thinking, how good did it used to be to sit 'on the wall' as a kid and really get close to your heroes especially when they scored you could give them a pat on the back and that.

Only in Rugby League would you be able do this.

Regards to the thread this is fantastic for people like me Im only 17 and sadly never got chance to see Wigan play at Central Park.
What a fantastic traditional proper rugby league ground it looks I have seen photos and videos of it before but these are more of the fans side of things the passion and colours in the stands are unreal!. I here stories and experiences from my Granddad, Dad and members on this board and its makes me a tad jealous I never had the chance to go and soak up the atmosphere that Central Park gave off.
I guess I can never experience the fantastic times and memoris many of you had at Central Park but with the Ultras now at work I guess the DW is starting to feel allot more homely than times before.

I'm 19 so I only got to go for a few years really, just from like the age of 5 upwards I can remember. Even when I was young it was really special, the excitement going to the ground was so much more! Maybe thats cause I was so young though and I was on my dads shoulders going across the bridge. I remember the last game like it was yesterday!

Or get carried through the turnstyle ......My dad had to stop when I was 13 as I was bigger than him, a firemans lift was required then.

Indeed getting lifted over turnstiles and sitting on the wall is a great memory. Probably should have got piles if the urban myth is anything to go by! Think I used to take a bit of underlay to sit on when it was proper cowd. In the 86/7 championship pitch invasion, westy gave me a piggy back (was a bloody long way up there!). Eeeeee we're like one big happy family eh?! The good thing is that Wigan rflc is feeling more like that nowadays then it has for a while.