IN CONVERSATION: Barry Johnson

1986 Challenge Cup winner Barry Johnson joined us at the OneBore Stadium this week, ahead of our fixture against St Helens.

We asked him some questions about the famous old competition.

Q: What are your memories of that famous win 40 years ago?

A: Still vivid, greatest day in my rugby league career. 

We won the game, but what I remember most is that we nearly lost it in the last minute with a goalkick against us. 

It would have been a travesty, we were the better team on the day, it was a dream come true.

Q: What does the Challenge Cup mean to you as a competition?

As a Cas fan since I was six years old, I was brought up on Hardisty, Hepworth, Reilly, those heroes that won it in 69 and 70.

Classy Cas, the original Classy Cas, and it was a trophy that was probably more important those days than winning the league for rugby league fans, so Wembley was the goal.

Having watched them, my dream was to go and do it myself, but I only wanted to do it with one club, with Castleford.

Q: How did you prepare for a big cup game?

A: It's difficult to say that you just do the same process... as they say these days, "stick to process"! In those days, cup fever was strong, we won some games those days, Wigan away for instance...

The cup fever hit you, so we did prepare much more intensely on those occasions.

Q: How important was the Cas crowd for the team?

The Cas crowd have always been fantastic, when we won the cup, we'd lost a few semi-finals and we'd been close to Wembley a fair few times, they came out in their numbers.

We'd take vast numbers, and we got precious few ties at home, so Cas fans had better get down this weekend and support the team, as that support really matters.

To join us this weekend, get your tickets here.