The Greatest Super League Games, Part One

[Tommy The C5t]

Something for the off season now that we can't make the play-offs.

The first game I've gone for is the Bank Holiday Tuesday Stones European Championship derby at Halifax in what would be are last ever visit to Thrum Hall before the bulldozers arrived to knock it down and it was a Rugby League classic to savour.

Tuesday 27th May 1997

Halifax Blue Sox 26-30 Bradford Bulls

Halifax Blue Sox

Tries: Dean (2), Gillespie 2 (9,23), Amone 2 (18,40)

Goals: Pearson 3/6

Bradford Bulls

Tries: McDermott (30), Knox (59), Spruce 2 (62,64), Scales (70), Loughlin (74)

Goals: McNamara 1/2, Loughlin 2/4

Half-time: 26-6

Penalty Count: Halifax 5-3 Bradford

Referee: David Campbell (Widnes)

Attendance: 6,252

I was only 12 at the time of this game but I remember it like yesterday, myself and my dad and his three friends left Bradford on the train and got to Halifax for around 3pm whereby we found the pub just up the road by the Bus Station.

Where all the talk beforehand was about Halifax's decision to add two pound to the admission price for the game, just because it was Bradford and we would bring at least two thousand.

But looking at the 6,200 crowd I guess many stayed away although from what I remember when being stood at the shed end, was that it was swarmed by Bradford supporters.

This for mine was the big game of the season and what a game with Halifax putting in a superb opening 40 minutes before the mother of all comebacks when for thw world it looked like it was beyond us.

Halifax went out to any earlier unassailable 20-0 lead before McDermott crashed over at the side of the sticks on thirty minutes which gave us some slight hope.

The Blue Sox in that opening half were white hot, with the relentless defence doing overtime to keep us at bay.

I remember saying to my dad at half-time that our 12 out of 12 record had gone and we wouldn't set a new record after St Helens had gone 12 in a row the previous year.

But then cue the unimaginable as the sheer brilliance of the Bradford attack cut the exhausted Halifax defence to bits.

This was James Lowes at his best as he worked dummy half to perfection sending Knox over to start the comebcak before the long high kick-off saw Spruce take the ball and go down on the Halifax line (back in these days the team that scored the try kicked off) before Scales took three Fax defenders over the line with him and all of a sudden the comeback was a reality.

We pulled the game back to 26-26 and Paul Loughlin had the chance to give us the lead for the first time but his conversion attempt hit the right post and bounced away.

But he made up for that miss just three minutes later when after a 50m Stuart Spruce run, Lowes spotted the Halifax defence at sixes and sevens and put in the grubber beyond them and then cue the biggest cheer of the season for mine (yes even bigger then the one at Don Valley and Odsal after we beat Paris 68-0 to lift the Championship) as Loughlin touched down the speculative kick to the corner and Widnes official Campbell awarded the dramatic winning score.

The conversion was missed but we didn't care, we were so elated at the drama that we had seen.

I didn't see it at the time but Matthew Elliot was jumping up and down with the supporters on the field as the 1997 Bradford Bulls had completed one of the greatest comebacks ever seen.

This game will live long in the memory.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Tommy The C5t

[terrywebbisgod]

"Glory days, well they pass you by"

[Fully]

I can see this is going to be TtC's weekly thread about Bradford in the past.

It really should be entitled "The Greatest Bradford Super League Games".

[Tommy The C5t]

I can see this is going to be TtC's weekly thread about Bradford in the past.

It really should be entitled "The Greatest Bradford Super League Games".

Not at all as I have Leeds vs Wigan from 1998 ready for next week.

Who knows I may even put you're famous win at the JJB opening in Mark.

[Tommy The C5t]

"Glory days, well they pass you by"

It's the only thing that keeps me going, watching old VHS games of the Bulls.

[Wigansnapper89]

Has to be Bradford vs Wigan in playoffs for me in 2007. Remember my dad seyin "Dont wanna watch this anymore, should we go" and i said "no might aswell stay now weve paid". My god it were good. I thought we did amazing to get to 10 mins away from GF that year with an average team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSUdxCtwGk...feature=related

[Tommy The C5t]

Has to be Bradford vs Wigan in playoffs for me in 2007. Remember my dad seyin "Dont wanna watch this anymore, should we go" and i said "no might aswell stay now weve paid". My god it were good. I thought we did amazing to get to 10 mins away from GF that year with an average team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSUdxCtwGk...feature=related

Was very painful to take but credit where it is due, you never gave up and took advantage of some very slack tactical options from the then Bradford coach Steve McNamara.

[Wigansnapper89]

Wigan vs Bradford

Sorry to put this one on against Bradford again but this is just quality. Having to win to go top of the league. Last 10 seconds of the game to score a try like that then to kick that..... Awsomme!!

[Tommy The C5t]

Wigan vs Bradford

Sorry to put this one on against Bradford again but this is just quality. Having to win to go top of the league. Last 10 seconds of the game to score a try like that then to kick that..... Awsomme!!

We had two men in the bin when that happend hence the holes in the defence.

We went 10-0 up after 11:00 minutes through Pryce and Lowes and then just gave Russell Smith too many excuses to penalise us

Lucky for us we were staying at the Pontins out in Ainsdale that weekend so we didn't have far to travel after the game (just a train full of gloating Wigan supporters heading towards Southport).

[Odsal Outlaw]

I was at the 'Fax game! Also stood behind the sticks ....... what a game, what a comeback. One of the best comebacks by a Bulls side, especially as we are more often the victims rather than the perpetrators of comebacks! I remember Loughlin scoring in the corner!! Brilliant!

[Fully]

Not at all as I have Leeds vs Wigan from 1998 ready for next week.

Who knows I may even put you're famous win at the JJB opening in Mark.

I'd prefer the one where we beat Saints at The Jungle (any of them). Or the Bradford wins from last season? Or our 7-6 victory over Widnes in 2004

[Tommy The C5t]

I'd prefer the one where we beat Saints at The Jungle (any of them). Or the Bradford wins from last season? Or our 7-6 victory over Widnes in 2004

I found the Widnes 6-7 Castleford game a very poor spectacle, only really interesting due to what was at stake and the closeness of the score.