confirmation that Halifax's fifth round tie at Sheffield will be played on Friday, May 10 with an 8pm kick off at Don Valley Stadium,

I must say that this will ensure three things
- a complete lack of any atmosphere
- attendance struggling to get through 1000
- a financial nightmare for Fax if we win the player win bonuses will be bigger than any income and if we loose we will see income not cover expenses.

Absolute nonsense of a contest. Whole cup needs rethink.

Wont prize money go some way to covering win bonuses?

On another note theres never any atmosphere when we play Sheffield away anyway neither at the Don Valley or Bramhall Lane.

Im pleased,it wont clash with towns potential playoff final.

London away doesn't seem that bad now...

The 8pm on 10th May kick off is the best we can do to make the game accessible to Fax fans.
The Don Valley Stadium is booked for the Sheffield Half Marathon on Sunday 12th May, and they are erecting scaffolding which encroaches on the run off areas of the pitch to create the start/finish arch. That goes up on Saturday and comes down on Monday.
The Halifax RLFC Board would have preferred a Sunday afternoon or early evening kick off to make travel for supporters easier (and to avoid the clash with the Jim Gannon Testimonial event on 10th May).
Of course Howard is right that the consequence of a low attendance is a financial burden for what should be a money-spinning opportunity.
Michael Steele

It seems the Cup has taken on even more importance and is a game we need to win.
Helping us to :-
Have the opportunity to recover any losses from previous rounds
Increase media exposure and generate interest
Get a Super League side down the Shay and cause an upset
And finally..... get more ears pricked up about what a great side is developing, bums on seats, or feet on terraces for the remainder of the campaign.

Its a bad tie in financial isolation but could be a great stepping stone.

Hoping its not a costly distraction.


P.S would have prefered Rhinos at home, bumper gate, plucky loss and back to concentrating on NRC, League and GF treble. Got a cracking starting team, not sure the squad can be stretched too much by distractions and any injuries.

Get a bloody proper home you Seagulls, every game is a lottery on where it's played.

Complete joke, might as well as taken it to Mount St Marys school.

As I have said on another thread, the worse possible draw, Friday night motorway traffic, a dung heap of a stadium with 300 Sheffield "fans" chanting seagulls and that stupid over weight bird. Yes I know there are a lot of over weight birds in Sheffield, I meant the mascot.

Michael, wasn't Bramall Lane an option? Much better than Don Valley!

As usual it is just to make it difficult for us

In reply to HXSparky, the decision as to where the match is played is very much Sheffield Eagles' decision as the home team. I could speculate as to the reasons why they chose Don Valley but it wouldn't be appropriate to do so on the Forum, sorry.
Michael Steele