The Road to Wembley - Part 6

Challenge Cup Round 6

Oldham Roughyeds 10 Warrington Wolves 70 – Saturday, 7 May 2016

Fresh from shocking everyone in rugby league with their 36-22 demolition of Super League’s Hull KR, I listened intently to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the following Thursday morning on the way to work to find out where I would be sent next on my Challenge Cup journey.  It turned out I would be back at Bower Fold as Oldham were rewarded with a tough home draw – Super League leaders Warrington would be coming to town!

I was thrilled with that as it meant a nice local trip for me from my home in Tyldesley.  I asked the other half if she wanted to come along again but was stood up this time in favour of an afternoon in the garden.  That left the option open for inviting some mates along and one of them, Andy, duly obliged.  Like me, he has no allegiance to either of the sides that were playing and was no doubt lured by the chance of a pie and a pint in the sun whilst watching a good game of rugby.

In the weeks leading up to the match Oldham announced that it wouldn’t be an all-ticket game and I was pleased to see they were expecting a large crowd and the advice was to get there early to avoid long queues at the turnstiles.  I wasn’t disappointed!  Even though there was a smaller attendance than in the last round away to Hull KR, Bower Fold is a small enough ground to be able to feel packed out by just over 2,500 vocal fans which led to fantastic atmosphere before, during and after the game.

Andy offered to drive and we arrived at the ground in plenty of time – a full two hours before kickoff - and the ground was already getting full with supporters outside enjoying a pint in the sun.  We hadn’t thought of booking a parking spot so the car park attendant kindly gave us directions, albeit confusing ones, to a designated car park about half a mile back down the road.  Needless to say we didn’t fancy walking all the way back up the hill so we found a little side street half way down and left the car there.

Once we got back up the hill of death the first destination was the little Indian restaurant situated at the ground where the bar was open serving alcohol to the fans.  Two beers were purchased and we stood outside watching people arrive and waiting for the turnstiles to open.  It wasn’t long before they did and we made our way into the ground, paying a very reasonable £15 each (£2 for a match programme) and found a spot to stand and watch the mini rugby game being used as pre-match entertainment.

Having been at this ground in previous rounds I pointed out a good spot to stand and watch the game.  We made our way round to the terracing opposite the main stand where I watched Odham’s game against Kells but unfortunately, the game was segregated so we couldn’t quite reach the middle of the pitch where I was last time as that area was designated to the Warrington fans.

The atmosphere was building as both sets of players were cheered onto the pitch just for their pre-match warm-ups and even though there were considerably more Wolves supporters it was the ‘Yeds faithful that were making the most noise.

The players eventually emerged from the dug-outs, assisted by an excited and enthusiastic band of mini rugby players that we had watched earlier, and the game was on.  Could Oldham pull off an even bigger shock than their win in the last round today?

The ‘Yeds fans certainly believed so and their excellent vocal support proved to be an 18^th man for the Oldham players who, playing towards their own fans, took a very well deserved 6-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes.

Warrington aren’t two points clear at the top of the Super League for nothing though and it wasn’t long before they equalised and then score a further two tries to give them a ten point lead with half time looming.  What happened next was what I would consider the ‘gamebreaker’ and where Oldham’s heads may have dropped.  They were attacking well and were unlucky not to add their second try to make the second half very interesting, but a loose pass 20 meters out was intercepted by the Warrington centre who had the legs to comfortably beat both Oldham winger and full back to score his sides fourth try and make the score 22-6 at half time.

Half time arrived and with it a quick toilet stop and top up from the bar was required.  I thought I was doing well at this point as I hadn’t missed a try but as we came back out for the second half the game restarted and, within seconds, Warrington were over the try line again.  Due to the density of the crowd we gave up any hope of craning our necks over the home fans to see the goal attempt and walked back round to our spots in the stand.

Warrington’s sheer strength and physicality was starting to pay dividends and they quickly put a lot more points on the board, including a seven minute hat-trick for George King, and the score-line had well and truly got away from Oldham – reading 48-6 before they had even caught their breath.

I realised at this point that I hadn’t been keeping score in my trusty little black book that I take to every game and spent the next few minutes trying to work out the scoring sequence, which wasn’t helped by the fact Warrington added another try or two in that time and was struggling to work out which ones had been converted and which ones hadn’t, much to Andy’s amusement!

As Warrington kept the score board ticking over by adding almost a point a minute they changed goal kicker from Kurt Gidley to Stefan Ratchford and he received plenty of light-hearted banter from the nearby Oldham fans.  Despite, Andy’s slim hopes of a fight back the game was well and truly over but Oldham did finished where they had started by crossing for their second try late on in the right corner much to the delight of both sets of fans.

So it’s the Warrington Wolves that I now join on the ‘Road to Wembley’ and I wouldn’t have long to wait to find out where I would be as the draw for the Quarter Finals was the following day.