City and Wire both went 35 years without winning a major trophy: City 1976-2011; Wire 1974-2009. I was at Wembley to see both sides break that 35 year drought. Great days both!
City and Wire both hold attendance records: City 84569 at Maine Road, the biggest English football attendance outside Wembley; Wire 102569 at Odsall, the biggest Northern Hemisphere rugby attendance of either code outside Wembley, the biggest crowd to ever watch a sporting even in the North of England.
A bit like City compared to the more successful clubs in football, Wire won the Challenge Cup before Wigan, St Helens and Leeds; and won a championship before Bradford, Leeds and Widnes ever did. And Wire have never been relegated unlike all of those clubs... Of course many of them have had more sustained success over the years and their fans like to rub that in Wires' faces (sounds familiar, eh?!)
It's always been a funny one with me and the Wire though as i'm not a Warringtonian (did live there for a few years when i did my degree at Padgate and did a bit of coaching of juniors for the club while i was there), i'm a Mancunian and do go and watch Manchester Rangers a few times a year now they're up and running again on a Saturday afternoon in the Summer... but i am a Wire despite not being from there.
I'll be there supporting them on Saturday though but i'm not expecting a win, much like i wasn't on Thursday at Saints, as Wigan have shown that they're a more consistently good team over the course of the season and Wigan are rightly favourites but in a one-off game you never know.
Now the Wire!
