Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:13 am  

Whilst maybe not technically 'great' moments, are there any pictures anywhere of the Main Stand fire or aftermath and then being rebuilt?
Or of any of the other stands/ the club being constructed?

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:22 am  

beating wigan in the snow sticks out for me and i dunno what aussie team it was but it maybe queensland we beat at home.Bradford at home as well when we beat them by a drop goal but the worse one has to be warrington in the cup with the stupid amount of added on time

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:29 am  

sorry we beat Adelaide Rams 14-12

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:54 am  

steve rules cool head to kick a goal in a packed willows during the centenary game to tie it 16 16

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:57 am  

My early memories were our lot ( My mum, dad and they're friends) always being last of of the bar every home game with Nige and Ernie always having to kick us out!!

Always going into the players bar after the Variety centre had closed.

On the field it has to be beating Wigan in the cup and waking up the next morning to see ourselves in the willows on the breakfast news.

I always remember beating Keighley in the 1996 play off final at Old Trafford, when Budge fell from one tier of the Stretford End to the other after Scott Naylor crashed over, he somehow managed to climb back up to where we were sat. When we got back to the willows he was sat in the Tav with both feet up on stools turned out the legend had broken both his ankles and was off work for several months!!!

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:52 pm  

I used to love having the freedom of The Willows throughout my childhood, could go anywhere anytime, away team dressing room, home team dressing room, referees dressing room, tea room all under the shed. Loved just playing around behind the north stand and exploring the directors seats in the main stand. Running out onto the pitch before the cage was built and pretending I was playing, dropping a few drop goals and kicking conversions, diving over the try line under the sticks after running the length of the field pretending I'd ran around many a great legend thus scoring the winning try of the game! Pretending I was a turnstyle operator and messing around with the pedals to turn the turnstyles. Helping to clean the dressing rooms and hang the shirts on their pegs for the next game, used to love hanging Steve Nash's shirt up! The smell of linament every single day! Being given a chewy everyday off Len the kitman and chatting to Dai Moses about the previous weekends game.

On a sadder note of all the above was watching my mum scrub the dressing rooms clean after everygame, washing and ironing the kit for hours on end only to be paid such a measly pittance!

King of The Shed and Salfordredallover will know all too well of the above!

I can forget any game, score, player or anything else The Willows has given me on the playing side but I'll never forget my childhood memorys which are just for me and The Willows.

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:24 pm  

Being on a skills course when I was 10/11 at The Willows for a week ... going in the gym which was/is beneath the Tavern, eating my lunch from the back row of the North Stand every week then training with the first team on the last day.

The look of surprise on the face of a certain Tavern bar man when he found out it was my 18th birthday, and realised he'd been serving me underage for the past five years.

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:07 pm  

They have these types of memories all around the Man City stadium on the walls, always makes me smile. Might be an idea to have some out up in the new staduim.

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:13 pm  

The final home game of the 2006 season v Castleford when we had already made the play offs and Cas had to win to stay up or it would go to the final day, however the atmosphere was electric and if I remeber correctly kick off was delayed for 15 minutes with people turning up late...The Shed was hammered and was bouncing just before the teams come out and then we went on to beat them 26-16 I think.

Remeber Dodgy Hodgy getting the final try and taunting the Cas players and fans...sweet revenge for what had happened 4 years previous.

Also
Wigan in the snow

Wigan in the cup that same year..Rutcho's try when he stopped then just seemed to take the whole Wigan team under the sticks to break the deadlock. (plus a fine pre match that included me getting kicked off the tram at Langworthy for bringing a pint on it, sneaking back on then getting kicked off again and walking the rest of the way.)

Beating Hudds at home in '07 especially the long range try (Probably one of the best I've seen) that included Wilshere, Buddha and Viane.

The sit down stand up if you love Salford in the shed final game of the '07 season against Wire when we were relegated.

Plus many more could be here all day...

Re: Your 100 great Willows moments : Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:47 pm  

The try against Huddersfield back in 06 which was basically scored by the defence. The Shed was bouncing with the ooooooooooooooooooo before each tackle, the lads smashed them, forced the error and scored. Would love to see a defence like that again!

Another one, not sure who we were playing but literally everyone on both teams were in a mass brawl... except good old Martin Offiah who just sat down at other end of field and watched on!

A memory that sticks out, for all the wrong reasons as well was Alan Hunte's try in the CC in the 7th minute of added time to knock us out! He's made up for it since but what a bugger that were!

1st ever Super League game against Cas i think it was & winning 4-0. I'm prob wrong but think it was Phil Cousins scoring in the corner early on??

Just generally stood having a chat about rugby with anyone stood around you and becoming friends is something that will always stick out. My season ticket next year is for the main stand seating, I'm sure I'll be stood up behind the sticks soon enough!

So so many good, bad & indifferent times but wouldn't change one of them!