People have to realise that the present set of players are very vulnerable to disruption in personnel. Missing Goulding and Gleeson was huge. Defensively Ainscough and Bailey were all over the place. Bailey cannot play centre. He is leaden footed defending out wide. Dorn crucified him to start the comeback. When Quins started to run riot he was unable to make tackles preventing passes and offloads. Ainscough, I hope Dave O eats humble pie. First try David?
That wasn't Ainy's fault, he had the winger covered. Bails went missing for their centre to score from the palm back.
You really need to learn. Wiganers know the background, the older brother. Dave you need to wake up. He was nigh on useless tonight. I am not sure he should have come sprinting in leaving his wing open for the chip that led to the try.
Johnny Walker, please. He is not a SL player. Rabbit in the headlights or running around like a headless chicken. It is no coincedence we shipped so many points after he came on. A mistake by the club / coaches. Tuson should have been recalled before Walker got anywhere near the first team.
The playmaking spine of the team becomes heavily dependent on Sam with no other halfback and we lose the tireless work of Lockers in defence when he is not at loose forward. Our hookers do not really playmake but both scooted well.Quins had 3 halfbacks playing v us and were rampant in the second half.
We need to learn how to kill opposition momentum especially when leading. We never slow the game / kill time. Kick for touch kill the game.
The pluses Liam Farrell showed some excellent touches and looks a proper player. Feka looked very promising. Far far better. Criminal lack of support on his long break. I thought he should have been back on sooner in the second half. Beyond those 2 players hard to say anybody else stood out.
I will criticise Madge and Waney. I think they erred on team selection. We are better with a halfback and allow Lockers to stay at loose forward. Lockers is the glue that holds this team together. His role at LF should never be under estimated. He is one of the players in the team that is true class.
Given the outstanding crowd the second half was a PR disaster. Nobody could have anticipated that second half after such a comfortable first half but as I say from the outset, Bradford MK II.
pie eater and proud of it wrote:Absolute shambles.
Looked knackered and generally woeful.
As for Ainscough, well I'm neither a fan nor a knocker, but he had a shocker in defence.
He rescued Phelps with three great cover tackles, catching Penny from behind for one of them, and as I've already pointed out, he wasn't at fault for their first try. He had to come inside a lot because they were cutting us apart down the right centre channel.
Geoff he was at fault. His opposing winger rose unopposed to get an easy palm down and yes Bailey was then at fault for not covering BUT the winger is the first port of call. If he deals with the kick the centre not covering is not an issue.
cpwigan wrote:Geoff he was at fault. His opposing winger rose unopposed to get an easy palm down and yes Bailey was then at fault for not covering BUT the winger is the first port of call. If he deals with the kick the centre not covering is not an issue.
Disagree. Defence is a team effort. Shaun did enough that Sharp wouldn't have scored, but he's entitled to expect the rest of the defence to stop their opposite numbers. Bails had a nightmare in defence all night.
Farrell excellent - definitely scored his third try. Maybe if the ref had called knock-on it could have been credible, but he couldn't have been held up in a million years.
Shame he got injured when he did cos he was causing them real problems - by the time he got back on Harlequins had taken control.
Thought Walker had a decent debut despite the comments already made on here (particularly harsh in my opinion). Wasn't far off scoring either. Shame McIlorum lost the ball trying to score - that one could have made all the difference.
We've been covering well so far for the injuries, but can't help feeling we're now struggling and really need to get key players (Tommy, Amos, Hansen) back as soon as.
Any word on Gleeson? Wasn't impressed by Bailey tonight at all. Felt sorry for Ainscough. Yes you can say he should have got the ball on the first try, but Bailey massively at fault for not being there covering too.
Great work from Shaun in cover defence on the Harlequins breaks first half. Showed the pace Phelps didn't have to close down Penny.
We've dropped the 2 points we gained against Saints. Need to be a lot smarter, but we're still top and 2 points clear.
We need some players back, no doubt about it. I think not enough credit is being given to a pretty useful Quins side, who were suffering (as Leeds were) earlier in the season with a lot of players out injured.
No team can lose 7 regulars and hope to perform at their best.
Agreed Geoff - meant to say Quins deserved that win for the way they played second half. Well done Danny Orr and Chad Randall. This team is not a bottom placed side and they won't be for much longer.
Sounds like a shocker tonight and that our blip in form is now well underway. Losing big leads is a very bad habit to have; as it could make the team twitchy in big games.
I didn't listen (or see) the match tonight; but on the balance of it - it looks as though there needs to be some personnel changes for next week. Bailey not being at centre (ever again) seems to be the most common opinion so far.
The thing that worries me is that we now have the injury list along the lines that Leeds had early in the season and it is likely that we will have to make do for a while longer yet (heaven forbid we get any more injuries). Potentially this could be the 3rd in a series of poor performances.
Playing with essentially one half back is always going to handicap a team; however there was enough quality on the pitch to get us home and you have to wonder what went wrong; we had a handsome lead at half time and it should have been enough.
You can bet that Huddersfield will be salivating at the opportunity to get at us next week and considering how we are shipping points at the moment; you would be very brave to expect us to beat them.
I'm not too sure how much longer we will be top of the table.
"And Martin Offiah, trying to make some space, now then..." - Ray French, Wembley 1994
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Interviewer: So that obviously means that you're not going to St Helens and you're not going to Leeds?
Frano: I don't know why I would ever want to go to St Helens or Leeds
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People have to realise that the present set of players are very vulnerable to disruption in personnel. Missing Goulding and Gleeson was huge. Defensively Ainscough and Bailey were all over the place. Bailey cannot play centre. He is leaden footed defending out wide. Dorn crucified him to start the comeback. When Quins started to run riot he was unable to make tackles preventing passes and offloads. Ainscough, I hope Dave O eats humble pie. First try David? You really need to learn. Wiganers know the background, the older brother. Dave you need to wake up. He was nigh on useless tonight. I am not sure he should have come sprinting in leaving his wing open for the chip that led to the try.
Johnny Walker, please. He is not a SL player. Rabbit in the headlights or running around like a headless chicken. It is no coincedence we shipped so many points after he came on. A mistake by the club / coaches. Tuson should have been recalled before Walker got anywhere near the first team.
The playmaking spine of the team becomes heavily dependent on Sam with no other halfback and we lose the tireless work of Lockers in defence when he is not at loose forward. Our hookers do not really playmake but both scooted well.Quins had 3 halfbacks playing v us and were rampant in the second half.
We need to learn how to kill opposition momentum especially when leading. We never slow the game / kill time. Kick for touch kill the game.
The pluses Liam Farrell showed some excellent touches and looks a proper player. Feka looked very promising. Far far better. Criminal lack of support on his long break. I thought he should have been back on sooner in the second half. Beyond those 2 players hard to say anybody else stood out.
I will criticise Madge and Waney. I think they erred on team selection. We are better with a halfback and allow Lockers to stay at loose forward. Lockers is the glue that holds this team together. His role at LF should never be under estimated. He is one of the players in the team that is true class.
Given the outstanding crowd the second half was a PR disaster. Nobody could have anticipated that second half after such a comfortable first half but as I say from the outset, Bradford MK II.
Faz normally gets himself in good position and the fans certainly seemed to think he had scored. Not convinced Bentham handled that period of the game very well given Quins were happy to keep conceding penalties.
