Salford Reflections

[cpwigan]

First Salford are very poor. They will struggle to win more than a game or two all season. Myler has potential. Might be worth signing and pairing up with Sam if we want to play Tommy at hooker. Even when Salford made breaks nobody was in support. Smith at 6 did the odd good thing but it is sad when ou can honestly say the most impressive part of Salford game is their kick offs. I guess they get a lot of practice.

Coley had an outstanding first stint. We started the game really well although still struggle when teams move us around. Prescott did well too.

Sam just has so much speed that if he gets in open space he is very hard to stop. Great first half try. He would be even better on the left hand side. Piggy did okay early but struggles fitness wise IMO. Pat was great at FB. His positioning and fielding of kicks on the full means even if he is not the best returner of the ball he does set us up with great field position. He is Mr Consistent. Ainscough did fine too. Tommy at 9 went very well. Smith set up a try. His defence remains a worry and in the second half it led to Salford scoring. Oddly Salford never targetted him.

Second half was strange. Hock leaving after 4 minutes and straight into the changing rooms with the Doc in close attendance. KP then becoming a passenger for much of the half disrupted the party that should have followed. I think had we not been disrupted you could add 20+ points to our score.

Fielden needs to improve. Coley responded tonight. Prescott went well too. He should be our leading prop not the one making up the numbers.

Enjoyable night but let's not get carried away. Salford in 2009 are not SL quality. Thank God for franchises if you are a Salford Red.

[cpwigan]

Just to add I think there may have been more Wiganers in the 7000 crowd than Salford. Great to have both reserves and first team together on the same night. The reserves really raised their game as the Wigan supporters grew in number.

The best moment for Salford was Jami Moore coming onto the pitch pre match and showing his European Title Belt. They went crazy. He won it fighting at the Robin Park Arena too which is great for Wigan as we have been starved of quality live boxing for a long time. Old CPW is a bit of a boxing fan.

BTW - Those half time kids games - The black lad (no racism intended could shift a bit)

[cpwigan]

Salford looked for an early break through as Wigan lost possession from the kick off with a knock on. A Jeremy Smith kick, Myler looking to touchdown but he was just too late, the ball going dead.

It says so on the official ste but my recollection is that Myler was adjudged offside because he definetly touched the ball down as I was stood right in front of the incident and everybody else agreed with me (no intimidation required)

[GeoffN]

First Salford are very poor. They will struggle to win more than a game or two all season. Myler has potential. Might be worth signing and pairing up with Sam if we want to play Tommy at hooker. Even when Salford made breaks nobody was in support. Smith at 6 did the odd good thing but it is sad when ou can honestly say the most impressive part of Salford game is their kick offs. I guess they get a lot of practice.

Coley had an outstanding first stint. We started the game really well although still struggle when teams move us around. Prescott did well too.

Sam just has so much speed that if he gets in open space he is very hard to stop. Great first half try. He would be even better on the left hand side. Piggy did okay early but struggles fitness wise IMO. Pat was great at FB. His positioning and fielding of kicks on the full means even if he is not the best returner of the ball he does set us up with great field position. He is Mr Consistent. Ainscough did fine too. Tommy at 9 went very well. Smith set up a try. His defence remains a worry and in the second half it led to Salford scoring. Oddly Salford never targetted him.

Second half was strange. Hock leaving after 4 minutes and straight into the changing rooms with the Doc in close attendance. KP then becoming a passenger for much of the half disrupted the party that should have followed. I think had we not been disrupted you could add 20+ points to our score.

Fielden needs to improve. Coley responded tonight. Prescott went well too. He should be our leading prop not the one making up the numbers.

Enjoyable night but let's not get carried away. Salford in 2009 are not SL quality. Thank God for franchises if you are a Salford Red.

Pretty decent summary, although I thought we looked a lot worse when TL went to #9 and Smith came on. I'd still have preferred having McIlorum on the bench instead of Smith.

Quite a few candidates for MoM, I thought; good team effort all round (nearly). Pryce was disappointing, even before his injury, and Fielden was pretty much invisible again, though he did get a couple of decent hits in defence.

I'd have to be boring and vote for Sam T again, I think, though Shaun was close, as was Richards.

[GeoffN]

Salford looked for an early break through as Wigan lost possession from the kick off with a knock on. A Jeremy Smith kick, Myler looking to touchdown but he was just too late, the ball going dead.

It says so on the official ste but my recollection is that Myler was adjudged offside because he definetly touched the ball down as I was stood right in front of the incident and everybody else agreed with me (no intimidation required)

We didn't get a penalty, though...

[cpwigan]

Very hard to pick a MOM Geoff which is good. Sam will probably get it. Pat never puts a foot wrong. I half wish he had scoired the Tommy try at the end himself. Coley cannot be a MOM because props are spelled but he was great early. Shaun had a vgood game although I think Coley, Prescott and Hock set everything up early and Piggy exploited it quite well. In the second half Lockers set quite a bit up. Although I think his pass to Shaun for his try might have been forward.

I will say this it is all well and good interchanging etc but sometimes I think th players themselves find it hard to get into games fully. They have to be interchanged I guess but it is not always productive from an attacking point of view.

[gpartin]

Did Tim Smith do anything?

[cpwigan]

Salford looked for an early break through as Wigan lost possession from the kick off with a knock on. A Jeremy Smith kick, Myler looking to touchdown but he was just too late, the ball going dead.

It says so on the official ste but my recollection is that Myler was adjudged offside because he definetly touched the ball down as I was stood right in front of the incident and everybody else agreed with me (no intimidation required)

We didn't get a penalty, though...

If not Geoff, the lad definetly scored. It was a brilliant touchdown. The ingoal touch judge was more interested in his bottle of water than the game.

[The JGG]

i thought that we did get the penalty. i think we onlt got 2 all night and that was one of them, i could be wtong though

[highland convert]

The topic, NG, Thought it was only for CP and Geoff.
Mind you I notice another couple of folk had the audacity to post,