Get what your saying, I think you are right to say the attendances weren’t as good as they could of been, not as good as 02-05, but in that 2016 season let’s not forget that we went on a really bad losing streak from Good Friday through until the end of May…and we fell right out of contention meaning the games later on in the season were pretty pointless under the 8s system, although Wigan away Mark II was pretty good!! Fact is, I felt like we were finally getting somewhere, as I’m sure many others did, but the 16/17 off season destroyed any remaining confidence I had in the regime, others will have felt the same way and not gone the game or bought season tickets…I only got one in 2018 at the last minute to be honest.
In all fairness, I think Widnes averaging around 5,700 between 12 and 18 is actually a pretty good attendance considering during the “glory days” we attracted less.
And ultimately, you’re correct about that losing run, it was almost pathetic how we could go from top of the league at Easter to a huge losing run.
However, I remember some people just wanting the season to end in JULY when we should have been enjoying not worrying about relegation battles for once. I believe the contempt for Betts and Rule was so extreme during this period that fans simply were not interested in how well the team was actually performing.
Betts’ win ratio of 40% must include the Middle 8 games against the championship sides. No way did we win 4 out of every 10 games in SL Paulie xx
2012 - 6/27
2013 - 10/27
2014 - 13/27
2015 - 9/23
2016 - 10/23
2017 - 5/23
2018 - 3/16
56 out of 166 = 34%
Another point someone made about crowds etc - worth noting that in 2016 after that incredible start, we still managed to lose eight in a row, which perhaps explains the crowd dissatisfaction. The one that killed us that year was the home defeat to Castleford where we led 18-0 and chucked it away, which was the fourth loss in that run.
Disaster that one, 18-0 up v Cas.They sensed our weakness with a try just before half time.Spread the ball out wide and it's panic stations.
Same happened against Hull in 2017, losing a 22-0 lead to be beaten 33-22. The same against Castleford, losing a 22-10 lead to be beaten 32-22, with Castleford scoring two tries in the last 10 minutes. We did seem susceptible to conceding tries in the last 10 minutes in games.
To be fair, the first Wigan away is possibly my favourite game since I first started watching (late 90s) so it wasn't all bad....