Wigan Warriors- The 18th man: 'One of the best days I’ve had watching this magnificent club'

Robert Kenyon

Wow, what a last five minutes of the game.

Throughout I never felt confident, I thought Huddersfield were the better team to be fair but it goes to show not always the best team wins.

Saying that watching the game back at home I thought Harry Smith was unlucky not to win the Lance Todd trophy, he played a blinder despite a couple of mistakes in the first half.

I think nerves affected our performance and it was very conservative rugby we played.

Either way, a win is a win and what a win it was.

I really enjoyed the Spurs stadium, prefered it to Wembley if I'm honest.

The only down side was all the coaches were tucked away in the little car park and it was hard to find your coach after eight pints of lager.

The Spurs stadium has the single tier South stand modelled on Dortmund's yellow wall which if used for Challenge Cups allows the better supported team to have it and create a great atmosphere.

It’s safe standing too which again provides a better atmosphere.

I'd have it at Tottenham again over Wembley if I'm honest.

Jon Lyon

That is how you win a cup final.

What a match, an absolute roller coaster of emotions, and one of the best days I’ve had watching this magnificent club.

It all started with an enjoyable scrum with everyone looking for their coach at Robin Park, cue a leisurely 5 hour saunter down the motorway with only a modicum of dodgy traffic.

The coach car park was the epitome of disorganisation as you would expect but very handy for the stadium, and what a stadium it is.

Quite strange to have it across the road from 14 barbers and a myriad of mini supermarkets but it was handy for the pubs and it was lovely, though not unexpected, to see fans of all teams mingling in great spirits.

Due to traffic we only made it in time to see the last 30 minutes of Leigh’s win, well done Lammy, who doesn’t deserve half the stick he’s had since leaving Wigan.

Lizzie Jones never fails to impress and set the tone for a wonderful afternoon. The atmosphere built nicely before kick off, a decent crowd that would have looked much smaller on TV had the game been at Wembley.

Once the game kicked off, the nerves got underway, which is more than Wigan did. I’m not sure if it was a result of some interesting refereeing calls early on or an overconfidence, but we just never got started.

Without doubt our poorest performance of the year. Yet through sheer grit and an incredible offload from Smithies and great support from Harry Smith we found ourselves miraculously only down by four points at half time. Could anyone believe it?

The second half started with the magic duo of French and Field combining for a wonderful try and I expected us to kick on from that point. Credit to Huddersfield who completed their sets exceptionally well and deservedly retook the lead.

The next 18 minutes were spent in abject misery, we didn’t look like breaking through and time and again we took the wrong option or just played the ball down the middle.

Then came Marshall’s moment of magic, following a great pass from Tommy and a sublime kick from Smith, who should surely have ended up man of the match.

The moment Liam scored will stay with me forever, I was covered in beer, hugging my dad, a random guy next to me was all over me as well, it was pure ecstasy. This is what rugby is all about, these moments.

I genuinely feel for Huddersfield, they did deserve to win, although I don’t buy into Ian Watson’s post match comments, Huddersfield should have had a couple of players sent to the sin bin too, which has been overlooked.

You look at servants like McGillvary and Cudjoe though and think they’ll probably not get another chance, but such is sport.

We lost a Grand Final late on a couple of years ago and now we win this one similarly. You play the full 80 minutes and it’s about who takes their chances.

After the joy of the trophy presentation it was a long, but very happy coach ride home. I’m hoping we end up back at Tottenham one day, it’s a stadium I will never forget.

Stephen Ford

An almost perfect day.

Train to London set off on time and we were in Euston around 10.15am and we met up with some family members who had travelled up from Dorset.

We had been advised not to go to pubs in and around the ground but while we waited for the people from Dorset, the remaining 15 or so guys set off to find the pubs enroute to the ground.

We met up with them in The Beehive which was packed with rugby fans from virtually every team in Super League.

Although packed, getting served was ok and the food that we ordered came pretty quickly and was excellent value for money.

For London the beer was relatively well priced so we had several scoops in the place.

We had a further few beers in Bluecoats before moving onto the ground.

The ground was quite a distance from the tube station but the liquid stops helped to break up the time.

The ground itself is absolutely magnificent. I don’t know how much it cost to build but it is worth every penny.

Although the food areas were packed and the queues for the beer were long, getting served was relatively easy and far better than my previous experiences at Old Trafford and Wembley for finals.

We sat in the Wigan end behind the posts and the view was first class.

I can’t praise the ground enough. I hope that more finals are played there when the current Wembley deal expires.

The game was as I anticipated. Huddersfield played a conservative game but defended well whilst we had more of a cutting edge from an attacking point of view. My main worry was a poor start from us and we got one.

During the game I thought that Huddersfield were the better team for the majority of the game however, having watched again without copious amounts of beer and without the actual tension of a live game, overall I think we fully deserved the victory.

We scored three cracking tries that would have looked great in any era.

I was particularly pleased that Harry Smith set up the winning try and that it was Liam Marshall who actually scored it.

I’ve been to many finals but this was the first one where we clinched it at the end of the game.

The scenes after the try were probably the best I’ve enjoyed for any Wigan final.

A great stadium, atmosphere and result made it a day to remember for the rest of my life.

It was also my grandson’s first Challenge Cup win which made it even more enjoyable as he joined in all of the celebrations.

The only slight issue was the return journey from Euston. It took us over 3 hours and all I wanted to do was get home and watch the game again from start to finish.

A brilliant day.

Darren Wrudd

There were several thoughts running through my mind as we awoke on match day.

Would Ian Watson have a plan to beat us, would Mr Child be waving his cards at anyone and everyone in a Wigan shirt, which idiot thought it was a good idea to sit Leigh and Wigan fans together, and could we possibly make it 20 Challenge cup wins?

Oh my, what a great day. Huddersfield Giants were a great ambassadorial team for Super League, showing what a high quality squad they have and playing the game largely in a great spirit.

But the game, however nerve wracking it was, belonged to us and to see the jubilant scenes as our club paraded the cup was a tonic which money just cannot buy.

I could not make the trip this year and so watched on TV and apart from the odd startled moment when Allan the cat jumped as I cheered or screamed, we all had a wonderful day of sport.

I was personally really chuffed that Leigh had won the 1895 cup which was a great game and to have both trophies coming back to the Wigan Borough is a huge statement to the quality of rugby league in the best grass roots area in the world.

Quite rightly in the BBC presentation after the game, Matty Peet paid tribute to the club as a whole and credited everyone in the organisation with the success.

Telling how it involved everyone at the club to make this dream come true.

I know several behind the scenes at the club and just how very hard they work to make match days happen and it was a lovely touch to mark this officially on national TV.

He spoke so well and handled himself in a most distinguished fashion that I felt it added much gravitas to the coverage and was a wonderful advertisement for our game as a whole.

Whilst we are at it, the BBC should also take a bow, as their portrayal of the day and coverage of the game was brilliant and I hear it attracted a peak audience of over 1.5 million viewers.

Speaking to several friends who made the trip to Tottenham, the stadium sounds fantastic and if we get back there next year I will see first hand as I will definitely be going down.

After the wonderful homecoming celebrations and the 36 hour party which followed the win, I wonder how the boys were feeling coming back into training this week.

The aftermath of the game is bad enough with several more injuries to monitor, but I really hope Cade Cust is not too badly hurt as he is in the middle of so much of what we do it would be a massive loss.

But we must re-group now and face up to Castleford on Saturday who will be more than expecting to take advantage of our hangover.

Let's hope we can bring two points back from there again with the song ringing in their ears, Championis, championis, Ohwey Ohwey Ohwey.