Match Reaction Thread

[Matthew]

Very disappointed.

As has been said - it was like watching the les cats semi all over again.

A few points:

We gave them far too much possession and field position and once they scored once; it was pretty obvious that they would keep scoring.

I don't think that wire were that good. Our previously solid defence melted after Bailey went off and Fielden and Feka came on and made it easy for them. It was only after Riley got injured and wire went to sleep that we seemed to wake up.

Most of our players played OK - but no-one really came to the fore or had a stand out performance. Prescott, Richards, Tomkins, Carmont, Flannegan, Coley were all good. Roberts was poor in defence; however his touch for Sam's try was sublime.

Thought that Morley should have been binned for the blatant professional foul on Carmont in the first half.

As someone said - Gleeson would have been better off wearing a wire shirt - I thought he was terrible today and considering what we're paying him; I expect much more.

Also agree that Lockers and Bailey should not have both been brought back for this game - one or the other. Mossop definitely did not deserve to miss out.

At the end I was just hoping that someone would end either king's or brier's season/career - where's Mather's when you need him!

Realistically it's looking like season over for us at this point - as I can't see us finishing high enough to win the league; especially on that performance.

I am supporting Huddersfield in the cup (not that I will watch the final) from here on in - I hate both stains and wire.

[pie eater and proud of it]

I am supporting Huddersfield in the cup (not that I will watch the final) from here on in - I hate both stains and wire.

Same here, Stains v Wire in the final is nothing short of a disaster !

[GeoffN]

Purely and simply, we were out-coached.

Lockers and Bails were clearly not 100%, and shouldn't have been gambled on for such an imortant game. Wire had exactly the same game plan as last time we played them - DH runs from Monaghan, Briers kicking to King. It worked for them last time, it worked even better today. Mossop's superb marker defence in particular was badly missed.

The whole world (except for one person) has seen Roberts's weakness against the high ball in defence, yet nothing was done about it. Going for 2 points instead of a tap, at 6-0 up, when we had all the momentum, changed the game (and was another indication that BN wanted a low scoring game), as did the usual by the clock substitutions. Who in their right mind brings Feca on when we don't have the ball? We had the usual musical chairs, instead of simply Flanagan (who had a pretty good game, I thought) to hooker, as we were all crying out for.

Although there were some of our players who had poor games, the same could be said for Wire; the difference was in the game plans and tactics.

On a slightly different topic, I don't think I've ever said this before but Ganson had a pretty decent game.

To end with an after-match quote from Nobby:

"It's important we learn the lessons of today...".

http://www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=5029
Yes, Brian, you've been saying that for 3 years now. I still see no evidence that anything's been learned.

[Panchitta Marra]

Dropping Mossop was a big mistake. His no nonsense, direct running style is exactly what we needed, because the Wire forwards are bigger and stronger than ours. Picking on form is important, and Mossop was playing better than most if not all of our forwards.

Other than that, I thought there was lots of effort from the players. I thouhgt Paul Prescott was our man of the match. When he came on in the second half he completely changed the game, and is showing he has all the skills to be a top prop. More importantly, his defence was second to none.

When Feka and Fielden were brought on, Wire had a field day. Both get caught out by smaller faster players and having them on together today was a big problem, especially as Bailey had just been replaced, leaving the defence in disarray.

Noble obviously cannot judge a players fitness on the strength of how Lockers seems to have performed.
A fully fit Lockers should play, but this was clearly not the case.
Not sure if the same can be said of Bails, as he was not on long enough to be judged on fitness.
Noble messed around with a very good young team, full of vigour, to again pick more senior players.
Baily and O'Loughlin were brought in to defend, yet the previous weeks team proved they could defend brilliantly.
How long does it take for the Wigan powers that be to see what this man is doing.
A semi promissing season ended again in failure, in which I believe lies on Brian Nobles door step.

[ian b]

shouldnt have brought Bailey or Oloughlin back and im not calling the players but neither are fit and i feel for Mossop.We were crap lets be honest and no one player was responsible we just had no direction

Agree, 100%. As the old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

Thankyou sir!!!.

[Panchitta Marra]

Parra, you turn everything to Noble? We were beaten by the better side on the day. King played, Now please tell me who Noble could have played to defuse him. Pitty because King spends half his games asleep. That game was won by playing against weak links. Marginal but there is little Noble can do,
Jim

Switch RIchards to King's side? Just a suggestion ...

thought that was simple myself

Highland Convert (JIM),
Before the game started, I phoned my Partners daughters from Israel telling them that unless Noble nullified Monahan and King, we would struggle.
I said that Pat should follow which ever side King went to, as Wire would put the high ball up to King in the air against a smaller stature winger.
Funily enough, it was Smiths tactical change with King that won Wire the league game earlier in the season.
Has Noble learned from this, like the hell he has, and at our cost.
Please tell me, did we diffuse Monahan or nulify King in this game, as Brian Noble as head coach has the choice to do this.
Swap coaches in this game and Wigan would hace won by twenty clear points.
Simple as.

[Poster]

Quite a reality check today in many regards, we had no senior player to get hold of the game in the first half when our young guns were perhaps overtaken by the event. We did not show any overall game plan and we certainly were not capable of adapting anything , or bringing about plan B against what were very obvious yet very average tactics by Warrington. We are regretably ,and will remain so for some time to come, less than average . Lets face it neither team produced a real attacking move in the whole game which produced a break of the game line.
In our recent wins primarily they have been based upon the endeavour of youth rather than a rounded team tactical performance.
I am sorry to say that today's game underlined were we are as a club today.

[jaws1]

Took my lad to the game his first game for over twenty years .He went to all the Wembley finals and watched Wigan home and away until he turned 16 and fell out with the game.Never bothered even to watch them on tv.
His first reaction was when they came for the warm up was that our forwards are no where near big enough.
After match reaction we need to play for 80 minutes not just 10 when a comeback looked ominous.He was shocked at the antics of the Warrington fans near us who were riling us up all the time.He said that both fans should not sit together His opinion Wigan are no where good enough the better team won and glad he does not have to spend his hard earned cash every week watching a poor team.

[Wigan Watcher]

pathetic and why?

Roberts…. Why was he on the field? Why was he allowed to be targeted time and time again? Why did the coach not do something about it?

Fielden….why is he allowed to play for Wigan, why was he given so much time on the field?

Lockers….why was he not substituted? Why when he played a bad game and had no go forward what so ever was he allowed to continue all the game.?

Feka….. Why was he allowed to be targeted in defence when it was very clear that Warrington saw him as a weak link in defence? Why was he allowed to be given the run around?

Riddell…Just why have we bought him knowing he is just an average out of condition player?

Why when we had the younger players on we did better, so why did we not play more of the game with them on the pitch?


WHY WHY WHY???

[OAMJSONA]

I dont want to have a go too much as some of the team deserve credit for how they played today heres how i saw it:

Phelps:- Tried hard some nice attacking flair unlike some never gave in
Roberts:- Weak link, now im not saying that he could of done much about the tries conceeded but just doesn't offer anything in attackGleeson:- could of stuck a wire shirt on him, he did nothing in that match
Carmount:- Didn't play bad was good when he had the ball
Richards:- the left side doesn't get the service now hock left but ran the ball in strong
Tompkins:- if it wasn't for this fellow we'd have little to no attack nearly everything good comes from him
LuLu:- needs to help sam more or be replaced, Sam is being burdene as Lulu cannot offer the needed alternative in attack, a few good runs and a good try doesn't make a match
Prescott:- 2nd best prop today ran really strong club need to hold on to him
Riddell:- Played well i thought his passing was good and looked fitter again
Coley:- best prop on the pitch in my opinion was great today and really deserves some credit
Hansen:- Average
Bailey:- Went off early
Lockers:- Looked rusty didn't let himself down but was slightly out of sync with the team, i wander whether bringing him straight back was the right idea

Subs:
Flanagan:- Showed some good stuff today did well, could be a great player if he works hard
Feka:- Useless, not fit and cant defend and seems to have swapped brains with Coley as Coleys going straight and he's doing the crab now!
Tompkins:- Was better today than he has been recently played well
Feilden:- I only have a while so ill keep this as short as i can

TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! every point scored by wigan when he was off the feild, every point (bar maybe the drop goal) Conceeded when he was on!!!!!. Worst moment when he drove it to one man tokk a step and just gave up and passed it to sam to take, im considering going down to wigan and picking a fight with him because if his performance is anything to go by a 5st girl could beat him up, im trying not to swear but its difficult he is the worst player in a wigan shirt and Ian Lenegan i hope your reading this and i hope your ashamed that you ever stuck up for him he is the worst prop in superleague!

Major problem as always we left ourselves far too much to do, story of our season, no silverware again.

Ainscough got dropped for making less mistakes than Roberts and IMO is more potent in attack.

Feka im a fan but have to agree he seems to have put a bit of weight on and did nothing today.He's turning into a luxary we cant afford.

Ainscough as been dropped because his next appearance money take us over the salary cap