Halliwell Jones Stadium Super League Sunday June 29th 2014
Programme. £3, good read
With the football season well and truly over (save for the World Cup)- in fact by now there are one or two pre-season games being arranged, Saturdays have become a dreary experience over the past weeks. Aside from odd bits of F1 (which from a Seb Vettel perspective has not been enjoyable!), lesson planning, trying to ensure I got everything sorted with PGCE assignments and trying to get my house sorted in King’s Norton has been the order of weekends.
I have no idea where the thought of doing a Rugby League came from, perhaps whilst Nick and I were sitting in my lounge at 3am after the Notts v Lancs T20 but we agreed that it would be worth a punt.
Rugby League is played by mostly teams around the M62 so there’s plenty of local derbies and having seen bits on Sky, the atmospheres are pretty good (because Northern based fans are more vocal than southerners, except perhaps Pompey fans) and they even allow you to stand. YES, THAT’S RIGHT, THEY LET YOU STAND AND TAKE ALCOHOL ONTO THE TERRACES (hint, FA).
So we arranged to see Warrington because a) They have a tidy new ground which has terraces b) They’re reasonably good c) They’re well supported and d) They’re easy to get to from Stafford and Nottingham.
On this occasion they were playing Bradford Bulls. Despite not being a Rugby fan, I know Bradford Bulls are a big club with good history, but recently have gone into financial turmoil. They lost all their decent players and are now facing relegation with only 4 wins all season (1 being at home to Warrington). To make things worse, they had a 6 point penalty (2 points for a win here too) and they sacked their coach after a loss to the lowly bankrolled effort at Salford.
Halliwell Jones Stadium (from just past Warrington Central Station)
Also notable was Warrington’s price structure. Most top flight footy teams have kids prices then if you’re over 14, it is adult prices. No in between (unless it is OAPs/disabled fans). Warrington offer tickets for kids, students, young adults and adults. Our Young Adult tickets cost us just £13.50 each and there is no category A/B/C nonsense either, so watching them play Leeds Rhinos costs the same as it would London Broncos.
Rugby League does have variable kickoff times though. Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, the lot. 3pm Sunday was ours so it meant catching the 1048 service through to Warrington, where Nick would join at Stockport. Warrington Central is one of 2 stations in the place but it is the closest to the ground- a mere 300 yards away.
I’d also given myself another reason to cheer for a Warrington win, backing the 26-30 point winning margin at 6/1. They were expected to hammer Bradford, as they did in a recent cup game at Odsal.
It is obvious Warrington is a rugby town. Pubs and chip shops all donning Blue and Yellow ribbons and colours, with images of past and present heroes being paraded on the glass windows. The footy team plays in the Evo-Stik Division 1 North in front of about 150 whilst the Rugby side play at the impressive Halliwell Jones Stadium in front of around 10,000.
Grabbing a bite to eat pre match at Maccies, the pubs and town centre were awash with the colours of the home side as we made our way to the ground at 2pm. The town centre is nice enough, with a couple of shopping centres, although we did find the cheaper fast food outlets in shorter supply. There were some decent looking pubs though, but all were filling up with rugby fans. Nick pulled short of snapping the interestingly named Cockhedge Shopping Centre sign upon realising he was more than 8 years old.
The ground was built for the 2004 season, as Warrington had to leave their old Wilderspool stadium as it was not up to safety standards and is in the process of being demolished now. It has a seated north stand (the main stand with VIP and media facilities), then the Martin Dawes East stand with seats in the corner. We went in the South Terrace, a standing section and the West Stand was on its own (no in-filled corners). This was the away end and was a good sized terrace. Capacity is about 17,000 and generally a decent ground for a new build.
North Stand
North East corner & Martin Dawes stand
South Terrace filling up. Note to FA- It is possible to stand safely at sporting events, even without ‘safe standing’
Away end. This wasn’t actually segregated but mostly Bradford fans in there. Looks about 400 of them
Brian Bevan statue
We had a quick look round the outside of the stadium, got a programme (£3, good read). Security was tight enough, sadly with no cost, I had to ue my hoodie pockets to keep hold of everything. Hopefully the stewards didn’t thin I was bringing in a bottle when they asked me!
As for the game, Warrington had been on great form and blew away Bradford with 3 tries in the first 15 minutes through Harrison, Atkins & O’Brien (2 of them converted) to go 16-0 up and at this point a real rout was on the cards, but in keeping with the subdued atmosphere, Warrington lost a bit of intensity and Bradford, under new coach James Lowes, regrouped and were rewarded with a try of their own through Kearney in good spell before half time to reduce the arrears to 16-6 and give the vocal travelling supporters (about 400 of them) something to cheer about.
Perhaps following instructions to raise their level after half time, Warrington set off like a train (not the Skeggy express though). They racked up 4 tries within 10 minutes through Joel Monagahn (2), Westwood and Ormsby and suddenly the lead was 38-6. The game dune and dusted.
But Adrian Purtell exposed what was at times a shaky Wolves defence with a try after a good break, before O’Brien ran through a series of tackles to score under the posts. Warrington then added a 9th try when Evans went over in the 66th minute to bring up the half century.
But luckily for my bet, Bradford made a late rally, scoring after 75 minutes through Tom Olbison and with one Bulls score needed to bring the winning margin back into my required zone, Bradford obliged before Jay Pitts ran onto a grubber kick to make the score 50-24 in the last minute.
So as the hooter went, I was happy with my bet coming in, Warrington had won, but their fans acknowledged that against a much better side they would’ve been punished for some slack defending- although their attacking play was superb at times and way too much for Bradford’s side to cope with. It is the Wire’s 8th straight win and they move into the top 4 with 9 rounds of games to go. They’ll be in the playoffs but hoping to avoid having to play too many eliminator rounds before they enter the fold.
Luckily there was a tidy chippy on the way back to the station- again, donning the challenge cup to recognise recent Wembley appearances by the Wire. It helped pass the time before the 1719 rolled into town.
Overall, a decent experience. I think the one sided nature of the game led to a subdued atmosphere so it would be interesting to get to a game where they play a better team or play away, but for what I paid, it was not much more than watching Boston, and this is top level domestic sport- not part time footy. Whilst I’ll never have the same passion for Warrington as I would for Boston, it would still be worthwhile taking in a few more games from time to time.
Warrington
Matthew Russell, Gene Ormsby, Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins, Rhys Evans, Stefan Ratchford, Gareth O’Brien, Roy Asotasi, Micky Higham, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix, Ben Currie, Ben Harrison
Subs: Anthony England, Glenn Riley, Brad Dwyer, George King
Tries: Harrison, Atkins, O’Brien (2), J Monaghan (2), Westwood, Ormsby, R Evans
Goals: Ratchford (7)
Bradford
Brett Kearney, Elliot Kear, Adam Henry, Adrian Purtell, Matty Blythe, Lee Gaskell, Luke Gale, Manase Manuokafua, Matt Diskin, Adam Sidlow, Tom Olbison, Jay Pitts, Danny Addy
Subs: Jordan Baldwinson, Adam O’Brien, Chev Walker, James Donaldson
Tries: Kearney, Purtell, Olbison, Pitts
Goals: Gale (4)
Attendance: 9,003 (Roughly 400 Bradford)
MOTM- Ratchford
Match rating 8/10
Next up, the first pre season footy game on Tuesday night as we finally see the Griff! Coventry Sphinx v Nuneaton Griff
Cheers, Josh
Under The Floodlights 