fevnut's musings 2025/#19: The Widnes match, Fev v Oldham history and Shirt clashes

Whenever Fev are playing away against Widnes we feel quite apprehensive. Not surprising really, having made that journey regularly and suffered from 15 successive defeats at Naughton Park between 1977 and 1994. That run included losses by 14-48, 2-58 and 8-59 in the 1986-87, 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons. We didn’t play them in the 1987-88 season because Fev had been relegated to the 2nd division.

We really thought that that 15 run loss over there would be extended during the short 1995-96 season. We had already played them at home and lost 30-18. In December we had our away game against them and off we set – full of gloom – but returned home after the match in great spirit after finally breaking the hoodoo, albeit with a narrow 18-16 win. The result was largely down to Martin Pearson who kicked 4 goals. A win is a win and this one was so sweet even though Widnes actually scored 3 tries to our 2.

That’s all history but it is still there in our Fev memory! So, a jump to 2025 and waiting for the game to start and wondering which Fev team was going to turn out. Would it be the one who played so well to beat York or the one that played so poorly against Toulouse?

What a good start with Connor Wynne’s early try. Things then got tough but the Fev defence was strong and there were two magnificent try-saving tackles from Ryan Hampshire and from Connor. It was a big relief that we managed to hold out and then we got the best clearing kick we have ever seen with Hampshire gaining a 40/20. He was actually 28 metres from our line and the ball went into touch 13 metres from the Widnes line. That’s a phenomenal distance of 59 metres! And, very soon after Derrell Olpherts went in after some good passing to put Fev 10-0 up. We were starting to believe that we could win this game, a feeling increased just two minutes later when Bailey O’Connor’s grubber was fumbled, and he was able to dive on the ball to make it 16-0.

Widnes pulled it back to 16-6 before halftime but we were still feeling confident.

Into the second half and Widnes score two tries to draw level. It felt like the momentum was with them so it was a big relief when the ‘King’ went under the posts to restore our lead. From then on it was nearly all Fev. We say ‘nearly, because it took another excellent try-saving tackle from Connor Wynne to prevent Widnes having the chance to draw level although to do so they would have had to convert from the touchline. Still just 6 points up with 10 minutes to go but we blitzed them in those last ten minutes with three more tries from Boothroyd, Hampshire and a second from O’Connor. Hampshire’s try was the best of the match. It was a real team try with excellent contributions from Vuniyayawa and Ben Reynolds.

If we can continue with Hampshire and Reynolds playing like that then it is looking good for the rest of the season.

Were we happy? No, we were very, very happy!

 

Fev v Oldham

This Sunday it will be a special match at Oldham, and that’s not just because it is an opportunity for all associated with the mighty Featherstone Rovers to have a day out at Wembley.

Sunday will be the 100th occasion that Fev and Oldham have met in an official match.

 

 

Of the 99 matches played so far Fev are just one win ahead of Oldham so let’s hope we are still ahead come Sunday evening!

If you look closely, you will see that our record against the Roughyeds has been much better in the Summer Era, but surprisingly, although the wins have been so close Fev have actually scored 270 more points than we have conceded against them.

It certainly wasn’t like that in the early days. When Fev entered the National Rugby League in 1921 there were too many clubs to allow each team to play all the others .

Before anyone comments about the fact that we haven’t included what the situation was with Cumbrian teams, we would point out that there weren’t any until after the second world war. We can see another objection coming in to point out that Barrow joined the league in 1900. But what is often forgotten was that Barrow was actually in Lancashire until 1974!

Oldham were one of the Lancashire teams that we did play in 1921, but it was not until 1942, at the 11th attempt, that Fev managed to beat Oldham, although there was a drawn game in 1929.

Probably the most significant match between the teams came at the end of the 2007 season when they met in the NL2 PO Final at Headingley, after which the winners would be promoted to NL1. Fev won that game 24-6 and we were overjoyed but also felt a little bit smug. Before the game we were stopped by a television crew who asked us how we though the game would go. We said that we thought that the first half would be tight, but Fev would pull away in the second half. We were just 4 points ahead at halftime.

 

Oldham will be desperate to win this time because they have never played at Wembley. They did win the Challenge Cup three times but all those were before the final was played at Wembley for the first time in 1929.

 

Team shirts

We were glad to read that Fev would be playing in our main navy and white shirt because our away shirt clashes with Oldham’s home shirt. That’s something that is bound to happen sometimes but we were very surprised that the RFL approved the Widnes 2025 shirts as they are both red and black!

The flags above represent all the nations that, under current rugby league rules, members of the 2025 Fev squad have played for, or are eligible to play for.