2007 was one of our most frustrating years, the pattern of high hopes spiralling away mid season was becoming a familiar pattern but the lows this year were really bad, we flirted with a relegation dogfight at one point before a brief spell of playing the sort of attacking rugby which used to have Phil Clarke talking us up as the best team outside Saints when on form got us back to mid table.

The season was played out against the backdrop of Cullen’s contract, which was up at the end of the year and for most of the year we didn’t know who our coach for 2008 would be. Adrian Morley had been our big off season signing but it took him a while to get his season going after suffering two serious facial injuries which put him out for a while. There were a few “I told you sos” from people who had said Morley was past his best and injury prone but he hit good form by the end of the year and was GBs best forward in the internationals that winter.

We beat Wigan at the JJB in Round 1, and in comparison to recent years we made a decent start to the season, we won five of our first eight including beating last year’s Grand Finalists Hull in another of those last minute Briers drop goal games. That said there were still some signs for concern that things weren’t right. We got beaten badly at Saints (again) and lost at Wakefield (again) and whilst the optimists amongst our fans always had reasons to explain the defeat (it was going well until x got injured and it changed the game) the warning signs were there.

Then we spiralled into our worst run since the dark days of 2002, in a two month period we won only once – in the Millennium Magic against relegation bound Salford. Confidence was low, the pressure was on the coach and team, and opponents turned up to the HJ like vultures knowing we were easy pickings. The worst one was when a seriously under strength Harlequins came to the HJ and played us off the park on Sky, we didn’t put up a whimper of resistance. When you looked at their team sheet and compared it to ours packed full of internationals, it was embarrassing. Through May and June we were 10th, hovering around 2 or 3 points above Salford at the bottom, which was basically where we were under Plange. We still had no announcement on who would be the coach next season, but Jimmy Lowes arrived as assistant from Salford.

Out of the gloom came Kevin Penny, he came into the team at around our lowest point, and scored twice at Headingley, we were desperate for something good to cling to so we all got excited about him then, but nobody could have predicted he would end the season in the SL Dream Team. He got 12 tries in 12 games, some of them were real scorchers, and he brought some excitement to watching Wire again with his raw shock pace and agility at full speed. People were going on about him as the new Offiah which was stupid and always setting him up for a fall, he’s had a tough time since, but in 2007 he lifted us when we were in need of a boost.

Penny’s scoring run took the shackles off everybody. Bridge got a hat-trick at Huddersfield, Penny got a fantastic hat-trick against Salford, Briers got a hat-trick while we scored 60 at Hull KR, then we smashed Wigan and Sky’s golden boy Trent Barrett and suddenly we had gone up to 5th in the league. The board gave Cullen a new 2 year deal, signed Penny up to a long term deal to keep him away from interest in union.

A close win over Challenge Cup finalists Catalans made sure we were going into the last three rounds of the season basically needing 2 wins from 3 to make the playoffs. We lost a crunch game at home to Huddersfield on Sky, who leapfrogged us into the top six and left us needing to win at Saints to stay in the race, which we couldn’t do. We finished 7th, a point behind Huddersfield.

Henry Fa’afili was top scorer in the league in his last year with us, it was the end of the road for few of the other familiar faces from Cullen’s era, Grose, Leikvoll, Sullivan, Wainwright. Jon Clarke had the best season of his career and ended up playing hooker for GB in a 3-0 series win over the Kiwis under Tony Smith. At the time it was seen as easy pickings against a weak NZ side but looking back now that Kiwi side looks quite decent, it was basically the World Cup winning team of a year later plus some big fish who missed the World Cup – Asotasi, Moi Moi, Frank Pritchard, Hape etc.

Typical 2007 team: Reardon/Grose; Fa’afili, Martin Gleeson, Johnson, Penny; Bridge, Briers; Rauhihi, Clarke, P Wood; Westwood, Morley; V Anderson (Parker, Leikvoll, Mark Gleeson, Wainwright)

So, memories of 2007...

Freezing my balls of at the JJB in round one. when it was snowing, windy and just very unpleasent.

The year this forum turned nasty.

The season I turned from a Cullenite, to a pessimist.

I just knew it wasn't going to happen under Cullen.

It would have been interesting to see the Wiganers' reactions if we had got the guy we wanted as coach.

I have never been as cold in my whole life as I was that night. Snowing horizontally! Cracking night.

That night in Wigan was a blur for me. I'd just finished college on the Friday afternoon and met with a few mates down at Bank Quay to find 20/30 people all under age drinking on the train and packed into the train. Getting back we could only afford a taxi to Winwick so I had to walk for an hour the rest of the way home.

It was a good night back in my wilder days.

Such a pity I don't remember much else of that season, and not because I was intoxicated. It was probably the least interesting in the last decade in the way we went about things. We were average for most of it, while showing only glimpses of both brilliance and disastrous. The highlight for me would be in Perpignan, where a picture of me topless wearing a beret hat and my wire top sticking out of a pair of flower shorts was taken whilst holding a beer next to the canal. Such a boring season from a wire point of view.

Reading that Sally, it still baffles me how the board stuck with Cullen & didn't give him the heave ho. I know we had injuries, but the style we were playing was garbage with no confidence.

Kev Penny was the highlight for me..I'm still convinced he can play a big part as a strike winger for this club...

The Hudds defeat at home where we needed the win to make the playoffs..Sickened me to the stomach no fight no character..Beaten by a team that wanted it more, truly awful...

Another pretty bad season, but it showed what penny could do on a rugby field without half the idiots in the stadium blaming him for everything that was going wrong. I just wish we had brought a new coach in then to iron out his weaknesses whilst he was playing in the first team with sky high confidence. Surely there is no wire fan who would want to sell him when they think back to that season?

On reflection I don't think we stood still in 2007, if anything we went backwards. Both 2007 and 2008 were fairly similar years with reasonable runs of form followed by a period of absolute disaster. Chester Wire is right, it was the first year that some on this Forum turned very nasty, with some very stupid, ill informed and highly offensive postings.

Fought our way to Fourth but gave it all away...

Lost some great players this year as well!!!
Fa'afili, Grose and Lightbulb...