Memories of Knowsley Road, 10 years after Saints' last game

It was an evening highly-charged with emotion, with Keiron Cunningham signing off the evening with the stadium's final try.

But now they are just distant memories - of great days and raucous nights, happiness and heartbreak.

When the bulldozers rumbled across the turf once graced so majestically by Vollenhoven, Karalius, Murphy et al it was not simply lumps of concrete and mangled bits girder that were tossed into the skips and taken away in wagons, but the home we had collectively grown into and groaned in, too, was gone forever.

Onwards to a bright new world with Saints' home at a more centrally located and comfortable Langtree Park or TWS.

But those of us who cut, to use my predecessor Denis Whittle’s oft used phrase, our oval ball teeth at Knowsley Road, any shared memories, old pictures and YouTube videos of games at the old girl still raise goosebumps.

The new ground is wonderful, but it was never going to capture Popular Side, with a cross section of comedians, choristers, and critics in one exuberantly boisterous solid mass ever again - at its best when the Scaff was all limbs and the volume cranked up to 11.

So whether you are aged 22 or 92, Knowsley Road was a constant in our lives supporting the Saints.

Often taken there by our mams and dads, along with the obligatory milk crate, and in a blink of an eye we then carried our own kids over the turnstiles or snuck them under it.

Apart from being a sporting theatre, and home of top-quality rugby league, for many of us Knowsley Road acted as our schoolyard, social club, community centre and church.

Well, there were plenty of Hail Marys said, often rapidly when that high ball went up in the air in the closing moments of a tight match.

Ten years on, many a supporter can still close their eyes and just for a moment imagine they are stood on one of those four sides watching Tom van Vollenhoven waltz down the wing, seeing Duggie Greenall giving em mammy, cheering Mal Meninga as he smashes through or crowd favourite Roy Haggerty scuttling defenders.

READ: The Knowsley Road A-Z>

Here is a quick recap and recollection of what it was like on those four parts of the ground.

Edington End.

Prior to the relatively recent trend of ‘away ends’, which saw the Edington colonised by travelling fans, this part of the ground was a popular perch for Saints supporters who wanted to see the full width of the pitch.

To young kids walking in for the first time it looked as grand, if not as big as the Anfield Kop. The space on the pitch opens up in front of your eyes from up there, the ball flashing from left to right.

In the late 70s it is where the youths would sing, to the tune of Chicory Tip’s Son of my Father, ‘Oh! Eddie, Eddie! Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie Cunningham!’ adding percussion by kicking the corrugated sheets at the back of the terrace.

Paddock.

Any fan entering the paddock for the first time in 1980 would have got the impression of walking into somebody’s front parlour. There was a real homely sense of community spirit in there generated by stalwarts Helen Kennedy, Margaret Whittle and Eric Ainsworth who had the same spec every week.

At that time you would regularly see England rugby union internationals Fran Cotton and Steve Smith standing there on a Sunday afternoon.

LISTEN: The Scaff in full voice on that final night>

Although it was an extra 5p to stand there in return you could stand right next to the concrete dug-outs. In those pre headset days – the coach would bark out his instructions from the bench. Animated ones like Leigh’s Alex Murphy or Bradford’s Peter Fox would get out and shout at the players.

The Popular Side.

The most heavily populated part of the ground has provided the atmosphere and soundtrack to many a big game.

The liveliest part of the ground became the area on the half way line underneath what was initially temporary scaffolding.

The scaff really took off in the 1984-85 season with the arrival of Mal Meninga and the playing of some fantastic, free-flowing rugby under Billy Benyon.

LISTEN: The Saints Scaff in full voice>

The simultaneous resurgence of Wigan resulted in the sort of 20,000 plus gates that everyone one thought had gone with the game’s halcyon days in the 60s.

The late 80s and early 90s sing-offs between the Wiganers packed up in the Edington and a bank of success-hungry Saints fans on the Popular Side were almost as compelling as the game itself.

One game in particular sticks out. The last ever Lancashire Cup Final held here in October 1992 saw Wigan edge it by the odd point in nine. That day the Popular side collectively flinched left with every Saints attack and swayed right to assist the defence. Had they been able to blow the team over the line that afternoon they would have done so.

The Restaurant end.

The uncovered Dunriding Lane end of the ground attracts the hardiest breed of supporters - particularly given the weather that usually afflicts most Saints match days.

Plenty of fans first started watching Saints from the boys’ pen section behind the posts which is in front of the oldest part of the ground – the Pavilion, built in 1920.

Pre-Super League it was the end in which the players came out of the tunnel and went back down. Therefore it was the perfect place to let off steam after a poor performance.

The Main Stand.

Although it should provide the best view in the house, the main stand more than anything summed up why Saints needed to move on.

Built in 1958, it cost £33,000 but financial constraints meant only two thirds of the project was completed. The stanchions block considerable parts of the action and the side covering of A stand obliterates a good portion of the pitch at that end of the ground.

And when it was really full – and a match winning play is executed– the stand shook.

One game in particular would have given any local seismologist a treat.

In May 2005, Warrington were on their way to a first win at Knowsley Road since 1994 when a Sean Long penalty levelled it with two minutes to play.

That should have been it – but with barely seconds left Long hit the winning drop goal. The pandemonium that followed saw the stand vibrate at levels that would have tested the Richter Scale.

It is a place that still provides happy memories, still 10 years on.