SAINTS threw everything at us, and we threw it right back in their face.

Wire are heading to their first Championship final match since 1961, looking for that first title since ’55.

The Grand Final is going to be a massive day for the town as a whole.

On Saturday, I got to Saints' ground just before six and the first thing I was hoping for was a good turn out from Wire fans.

I didn’t seem to be walking past too many of them on the way to the ground. As soon as I got to the terraces, I realised why I hadn’t walked past too many of them, they were virtually all in the ground already.

It was great to see the packed out terraces behind the sticks, so packed for a while I thought I was going to struggle to find a spot to stand. That was a fantastic, uplifting start to the evening.

Right from the start it looked clear to me that Wire were going to put in a good performance, all that remained to be seen was whether it would be good enough.

The first half was a close tussle. I felt like Warrington were the better side, but not quite able to assert any dominance.

From our viewpoint on the terraces it felt like that a lot of close calls were going against us, that resulted in Wire having to defend their line more than they would have liked to.

Saints were clearly up for the fight and looked sharp in attack.

That great desire to defend their line that Warrington have shown so many times this year, was put to the test.

Saints did produce three tries in that first half, but they had to do it via two expert finishes right in the corner and one extremely awkward spiral bomb.

They didn’t get anything easy and Warrington’s defence had stood up to the storm more than well enough to keep them in the game.

In attack Warrington looked sharp themselves, a trademark off the cuff handling movement created a try for Riley in the corner, then later Grix showed exactly how you are meant to run onto the ball with the belief that you will make the try line and nobody will stop you.

The ever reliable Hodgson kicked both the goals and that meant they only trailed by two points going in at half time.

As soon as the first half ended, I got another uplifting sight, the Wire players didn’t trudge off, disappointed with being behind, or chat pointlessly to the referee to question certain decisions, instead they ran off and more importantly they ran off together.

After what seemed like an even longer than normal half time break, the second half settled straight into an ‘arm wrestle’, with both teams jostling for territory and neither one making any major mistakes.

Gradually Warrington’s slight superiority in defence and strength of running started to make a difference.

A poor kick was returned by Joel Monaghan to close to the half way line. Starting a set from there I felt that Wire should at least be in position to put in an attacking kick on the last tackle.

Indeed they did exactly that, and Briers produced one of his pin point accurate chip kicks, Joel Monaghan one of his perfectly timed jumps and along with a ricochet that was enough to produce the try that gave Wire a lead they would never surrender.

In amongst all the debate as to whether it was a try or not, was probably lost just how impressive skill it was for Monaghan to scoop up a moving ball with one hand, whilst he was on his knees, it would’ve been so easy to knock that ball on.

Now it was the stage of the match where Warrington were in the ascendency.

They had a similar spell in the first round of the play-offs against Saints, in that match Saints not only came out of that spell unscathed, they also ended it with a breakaway try of their own.

In the game that really mattered, Warrington showed the required composure, quality and belief to turn pressure into points.

Waterhouse crashed over for two tries, continuing his strong form at the end of the season.

Earlier on in the year I had suggested he wasn’t quite deserving of his place in the seventeen, now he is producing performances that have more than justified his selection, a constant threat in attack whether he gets the ball or not, and more importantly he seems to have improved his defence within the team unit.

Riley then produced another expert finish in the corner and we were jumping up and down in joyous celebration once again.

We would look at the updated scoreboard and the time left on the clock and be thinking ‘not even Saints can beat us from here, can they?’

This Wire team is way too good to be troubled by any sort of Saints hoodoo. That was crushed along with the destruction of Knowsley Road.

Spirit of '55

 

Spirit of '55 will also have a column in Warrington Guardian's souvenir Grand Final supplement on sale from Thursday