Dave W

I thought Oldham Gamblers would be a good but timing the name change is important. You've got to know when to, Oldham.

I suppose that depends where your start point is: They were a third tier club in 1997. Even if you're talking about the Championship as it is now, I don't think Widnes have been relegated to the third tier either. They've had a stint in SL when licensing was a thing but that's not the point. Batley *can* claim to having been a consistent presence in the second tier for 27 years running, however, which is a pretty remarkable thing in itself.

Usual thing - 1. String a couple of good performances together. 2. Think we're world beaters all of a sudden. 3. Fall back into bad habits and get walloped. 4. Pick up a couple of injuries and suspensions to rub it in. 5. Rinse and repeat.

Barrow Raiders live rent-free in Bradford Bulls' heads.

I think it's dead anyway in it's current form. When it was first mooted, everyone believed it would be a warm-up match ahead of the final. Having it as an afterthought seems to have shot it at birth. That's where we've been served a lemon. With regard to the Friday night idea, there is some reasoning behind it: I didn't just pluck it out of thin air. London Skolars used to get triple their usual attendance with neutrals descending on their ground for the Friday Night Lights fixture they used to do on Challenge Cup weekends - and that was for a nothing League One fixture.

Jesus, that's a depressingly negative contribution. Allow me to retort: 1. The 1895 Final would still need to be held somewhere and that would still need to be paid for, be it Blackpool, LSV or or wherever. I'd argue that the game could be played in London but at a smaller venue. It needn't be the two I suggested, it could be at any ground that holds 5000 or so people. 2. The CC Final itself is played in front of tens of thousands of neutral supporters; supporters of the game, the occasion and the history who ultimately don't care who wins but are capable of appreciating endeavour and effort and casting aside snide parochialism. 2/3 of the people who attend these big cup finals don't actually support the teams who are in the final. Without these "fans of teams who won't care" , there'd only be 25000-30000 people in Wembley or at Old Trafford, even when you include bandwagon jumping glory hunters. Family of rugby league and all that.

My answer would be to have the 1895 Cup final played in London on the Friday night at one of the smaller football grounds in the capital - maybe Craven Cottage/Loftus Road or somewhere like that. The winning team earns VIP treatment at Wembley on the Saturday and gets the honour of a victory lap round the stadium for a few minutes before the CC final to show off their trophy to a full stadium.

A mini Magic??? You're basically describing what every Wembley weekend is like. There are sizeable contigents of fans from every club that go down to Wembley every year regardless of who's playing.

A couple of hundred Featherstone fans didn't come through to Barrow because they've got a big game in London next week, not because it was on YouTube. Had they not been in a cup final, the attendance would have been around 1900 at least. If anything, the streaming option provided income that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Have Fev named a squad yet? It would be interesting to see if anyone's getting rested - sorry, "carrying minor niggles" (© Sean Long 2025)

Well done Fev. The Oldham Wembley curse continues. We've got you at Barrow the week before the final - I'm hoping your coach rests all your top players and puts out a weakened team . Whoever plays won't want to get injured ahead of a cup final. See you at Wembley!

I couldn't agree with you more. We've done exactly that: Used Vegas as a start/end point for a two week road trip (Grand Canyon, Route 66 etc). Highly recommend it. Also had several holidays in Vegas itself and we got round where we wanted to go on foot, or by using buses, the monorail, taxis etc. Just sharing my take based on personal experience. All I'm saying is I wouldn't use a car if I was just staying in Vegas for a few days: It's false economy - and you can't drink!

I don't think hiring a car for 3-4 days would be the best option if you're flying into Vegas. Any money you save driving to find cheap eats would be negated by the cost of hiring the vehicle.

Where the referee stands isn't necessarily where the defensive line is supposed to be A referee I worked with once told me he always dropped back a metre or two behind the defensive line to better see players drifting offside.

Not to mention crucial Liverpool and Man City games on TV as competition. Doncaster are a hard sell. Even in Doncaster.