Next two crucial says Woolford
SIMON Woolford has stressed the importance of Huddersfield Giants’ next two fixtures.
The Claret and Gold face Hull KR at the John Smith’s Stadium tomorrow (7.45pm) and then travel to the capital to face surprise package London Broncos on March 31.
The Giants have won just one of their opening six matches, but the head coach saw positives in the last two performances, and highlighted the need to replicate the type of display that saw them win at Wigan two weeks ago. series Merseybeat. But for us rugby lovers, he will always be the man who saved Fartown.
This is a piece from Shoulders Of Giants: “From 1987 onwards John Bailey began to seriously doubt that he could stop the decline at Fartown. He intended to ‘fold up’ as a professional rugby league club at the end of the 1987-88 season.
“Keith (Burhouse) and his dad pleaded with John. ‘This is one of the founder members of the Rugby League. The club was once one of the greatest in the game, you can’t fold it up.’ John replied that the club had a lot of debt, and ‘if it hadn’t have been for us we would have been in even more debt.’
“At the eleventh hour, investors were found. In 1988 a new board of directors took over, under the leadership of Mick Murphy, and injected some muchneeded capital into the club. A new limited company, HRLFC Ltd, was formed, with Mick Murphy as chairman, Jim Collins, a local builder, as club president and Neil Shuttleworth, a lifelong supporter, as managing director.”
Mick must be unique in the divided world of rugby. Not only was he our chairman, but, when his son started playing at Lockwood Park, he was persuaded to become the chairman of Huddersfield RUFC. Sadly, we shall not be able to hear Mick’s tales any more.
Thank you, Mick. Fartown and the Giants will always be in your debt. RIP. You are now reunited with your wife Rose.
■NEXT month we shall have Natalie Woolford as our guest at Turnbridge. For the calendar of events and to see all that HGSA does, head to GiantsSupporters. co.uk. Our Facebook page and Twitter feed give more ‘real-time’ news – use the hashtag #hgsasavethedate.
“I thought we went toe-to-toe with St Helens. We need to replicate what we did against Wigan and for the first half against Saints and we will be in the fight. We need to get some bodies back and then we can move onto the middle stage of the year and hopefully get some consistency with players on the field”
The Giants’ start has been hampered by a host of injury problems.
“It has been tough, you can handle two or three out but when you are talking six, seven, eight of your top 17 not playing consistently it’s very hard,” admitted Woolford.