Challenge Cup clash with Saints gives Halifax Panthers ‘a chance to demonstrate we are a club in waiting’ - Steve Lambert, commercial director

The World Club Champions visit The Shay on Friday evening for the first time since 2003 and Lambert can’t wait for “the big occasion.”

He said: “This is the biggest game we have had for a lot of years. We are testing ourselves against the best in the world and you can’t shy away from that, they are the World Club Champions who have had a tremendous period in Super League and our guys are pitting their wits against them.

“It’s big from a playing point of view - it’s a massive thing on the field, but we’re realistic - but it’s also big from the club’s point of view because it is showing our capability to deal with the big occasion. We try to be very professional here in everything that we are doing and it is a chance for us to demonstrate to people that we are a club in waiting, that we are starting to get our act together and we can do things properly.

“What people don’t see is the work that goes on behind the scenes. There has been a massive change in personnel from a director level and slowly but surely, internally, we are making changes.

“Any changes we are making are for positive reasons and are all designed at enhancing the plan that we have got to translate into being able to move upwards at some stage, whenever that opportunity might come.

“Very much it is about longevity, that’s for sure, but also about putting building blocks that help us get to where we want to get to, which is the Holy Grail.

Lambert is also hoping for a bumper crowd on Friday. He said:

“Ticket sales are looking vigorous, we are getting enquiries every day and we have sold out the Johnny Freeman Suite. St Helens are going to be in the North Stand and have taken 1,400 tickets off us and we hope they sell those out.

“We are hoping for a much bigger crowd than normal to come and see the spectacle. It is not an all-ticket game so we are hoping that a lot of people turn up on the night and come and see some fantastic rugby.”

Boyhood fan Lambert, 71, who was taken as a two-year-old to the 1954 Cup final, and the infamous subsequent replay at a packed Odsal, between Halifax and Warrington, says the upcoming game with the Saints brings back memories from previous encounters.

“It brings the memories flooding back. That infamous game where (John) Pendlebury knocked the ball out of the hands and we won that with (Graham) Eadie and (Chris) Anderson. There has always been a healthy rivalry between the two clubs since then.

“We were not expected to win and they were, but we pulled it off. It is a good rivalry and there is great history there. That Wembley final, I still watch it now and see things that I had missed before.”