Road to Wembley - Round Five

Road to Wembley - Round Five

When the draw for Round 5 was made the following Tuesday after York had brilliantly knocked out Championship side Rochdale Hornets I was listening intently to find out whether it would be a third consecutive trip to Bootham Crescent or a kinder draw closer to home.

It turned out that I did have to go to York for a third time but the disappointment of not being able to visit another new ground on my travels was cushioned by the fact they were drawn at home to Barrow Raiders!  I’ll not shy away from it ... Barrow is my home town, I  grew up there and have watched the Raiders since I was a young lad, so I was particularly excited about this one.  Having moved away from Barrow around 12 years or so ago I don’t get to as many games as I used to any more but I was pleased that this years’ Challenge Cup journey would allow me to see at least one Raiders game.

York had successfully managed to shirk off the challenges of both Egremont Rangers and Rochdale in the previous rounds and Barrow had enjoyed a relatively comfortable run thanks to beating Rochdale Mayfield 60-6 and Keighley Cougars 20-0 in their previous outings.  Plus with the added incentive for one of these sides to be the last League 1 side in the competition (providing Doncaster and Toronto didn’t win their games against Super League opposition) it promised to be a decent game.

For the first time this season I was joined on my ‘Road to Wembley’ by my dad who travelled down to meet me in Manchester where we continued our journey on to York around lunchtime.

After a couple of pit stops along the way we arrived at Bootham Crescent (again) in plenty of time and I was able to take advantage of Dad’s connections to bag a parking spot on the club’s car park, a complimentary ticket into the game and a free pint before the match (winner!!).  This made a change from the last round where I got there with half an hour to spare and had to park a few hundred yards away on a back street somewhere.

Talking to a number of fans before the game the general consensus was that Barrow would win but in my view, this was a potential banana skin game for one of the form teams in rugby league.  Barrow’s excellent defensive record could be at threat today and it would take a big effort to overcome a resurgent York side that had beaten Rochdale and, more recently, Doncaster.

I took my place in the stands and began to flick through the match programme I had picked up and came across York’s results so far.  I was surprised to see that they had lost to both North Wales and Oxford since beating Rochdale, as they looked so good in that game, but not knowing what teams they were able to field or if they were/are struggling with injuries I won’t comment any further.  York were once a team that would threaten Barrow in years gone by and all form goes out of the window with it being a cup game (just ask Hull KR when they lost to Oldham last season.)

The game began with plenty of noisy support from both sets of fans.  A blistering start for the Barrow saw them burst into an early 6-0 lead but the first half was tit-for-tat in terms of scoring.  York’s first try came from an excellent kick over the top which was collected by a super fast David Foggin-Johnston (who impressed me a lot in the previous two rounds) and he easily claimed his side’s first try.

Barrow were never behind throughout the first period but York came back from ten points behind at one stage to being just two points adrift at the break.  It was beginning to look like Barrow’s three unsuccessful kicks at goal could come back to bite them with a slender 20-18 lead, including a penalty right on half time which would have edged them four points ahead.

As the half came to a close Barrow had rested two of their big influential forwards and they remained on the bench as the second half began.  This allowed York to turn the screw and within the first ten minutes found themselves 28-20 ahead with two tries from the centre.

Barrow managed to snatch a try back to move within two points of York and then a huge game-changer happened where a York player was disallowed his try for crossing in the build-up.  This seemed to be the wake-up call Barrow needed as they quickly scored two tries of their own to take back the lead going into the final ten minutes.

Tempers were flaring on and off the pitch as the noisy Barrow fans were chanting and goading their York counterparts and the York bench players and staff seemed to still be upset about their disallowed try.  The RFL Match Commissioner who was in attendance was certainly earning his bread on the touchline trying to control both benches from boiling over.

Thankfully for the Barrow fans and any neutrals in attendance the entertainment didn’t end there as York scrum-half, Harry Tyson-Wilson, saw red mist and tried to throw a punch in frustration at a Barrow player which ultimately saw him receive a yellow card which meant York had to finish the game with 12 men.

Barrow ran riot in the final few minutes with three more tries including a fourth of the match for winger Luke Cresswell, but it was the final try by sub Tom Walker which enabled the Raiders to reach the 50 point mark.

For me it was a thoroughly enjoyable game.  I guess most of you are sat there thinking “well, you would say that” but even for a neutral it had a bit of everything and I would say it was probably one of the more entertaining Challenge Cup games I’ve seen in the last couple of years.

Afterwards, York’s supporters bar was overrun with ecstatic Barrovians (well over 200 had made the trip over for the game) claiming they were “having a party”, checking they could still spell the word Barrow after a few pints, and claiming they were off to Wembley!  The biggest noise arose when their players joined them in the bar and it looked to me like any York fans left in there swiftly supped up and made their exits.

So York’s journey is over for this season but Barrow’s continues.  Wherever the next round takes me there is a good chance that I’ll have to travel further afield again.  Then again, I wonder if it will be kind to me and let me go to Swinton, Salford or Wigan.  Who knows?

Roll on Tuesday!!

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