GATESHEAD Thunder last night hit out at the BBC for their portrayal of the club and rugby league in general after landing a plum home tie against holders St Helens in the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

Thunder chief executive Rod Findlay, formerly inhouse lawyer at the Rugby Football League, rounded on the broadcaster for labelling the last-eight tie a ‘‘bye for Saints’’.

‘‘We are the only Co-operative Championship club left in the competition and playing St Helens will be a tough ask but we are still in the cup and, if St Helens want to get to the semi-finals, they will need to come and beat us,’’ said Findlay.

‘‘The BBC are the primary broadcaster for the Challenge Cup and to announce live on TV that one of the ties is a bye is degrading to the competition and shows a lack of respect for Gateshead Thunder.

He added: “If this was an FA Cup tie, the BBC would never state that a match was a bye. In fact they would probably show it as there would be a chance of a giant-killing.’’ Gateshead, the 1,000-1 outsiders, had never previously gone past the fourth round but are now planning for a 4,000-plus crowd for the visit of Saints on the weekend of May 30-31.

Thunder staged their fifthround tie against Oldham at The Northern Echo Darlington Arena – where the attendance was 929 – because the International Stadium was unavailable at the weekend but the quarter-final will take place in Gateshead.

‘‘Darlington worked out really well,’’ said Findlay.

‘‘We had our second-highest attendance of the season and I’m sure we will play matches again at Darlington.

‘‘But Gateshead is our home and I think it’s only right that we play a match of this stature at Gateshead Stadium.’’ Findlay, whose club were due to host Toulouse in a Championship fixture on May 30, flatly dismissed any suggestion that the tie would be switched to St Helens in order to draw a bigger attendance.

‘‘We think our stadium is probably better than St Helens’,’’ he said.

‘‘We have a 12,000 all-seater international stadium and there is no reason to move it.

‘‘We might get a bigger crowd at St Helens but that would be unfair on our fans who deserve better. They have had 10 years in the wilderness after Super League was taken from them.

‘‘There is an awful lot of interest since the draw was made.

“There’s already a buzz about the match and the phones have been ringing non-stop with people asking about tickets. I’d like to think we would get at least 4,000.’’