A look back to a happier time : Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:25 pm
In this period of austerity for we supporters of the famous Saints I wondered if anyone else had been remembering their favourite Saints game. Mine was this one.Championship final 22nd May 1971 at Station Road Swinton in front of over 20,000 fans.
Final score Saints 16 Wigan 12 The youngest player was the substitute back Ken Kelly at 18 and the only player over 30 was the prop Graham Rees, in fact the percentile was 25 years across the 15 players. I remember Wigan being classed as the favourites and the Wigan support being ultra confident on the day. It all seemed to be going to script and I thought it would be an unhappy journey home when whoosh up and under it was from Kel I think, and Billy Benyon playing on with a severe arm injury caught it and went over. Offside cried our pie munching friends no said the officials good try to Saints and with time up we had done it. The cinder banks at Station Road rose with the smell of delirious Saints fans skidding down to the retaining wall and the two stands which ran down either side bellowed with cigarette smoke from the nervous people sat on the premium benches. It seemed to deflate Wigan as a club for a long time after that the team was broken up and they seemed to throw money at the problem without finding solutions. However that young team of ours had around seven glorious years in a very competitive league at the time. Leigh won the cup and Dewsbury the championship in that era so it was far more open than we see nowadays. Happy days which made me smile as a Saints fan and look forward to our next trophy.