Today's Game

[hayley 04]

It was a big improvement and a big step forward for us. Am very suprised that Kevin Brown was MOM though should definately have been the wonderful Dennis Moran. If he continues to play like this and with Danny Orr due back next week things can only get better for us. Was also very impressed with Danny Sculthorpe. What a talent! In fact they all played their part in a good win!

[GeoffN]

Sorry i'm late...Quick pint to cool down!
Don't need to add much to "w.t.i.d"'s excellent summary, except to say that the crowd and atmosphere were brilliant...Don't know what the attendance was, but we looked to have half the ground, and certainly outsang the Reds.
Apart from Rads' one stupid error, I thought he showed a lot more in attack than we've seen recently. Brown and Moran were combining much better, and Moran in particular was outstanding after a fairly indifferent first half-hour, when his kicking wasn't up to much.
I think a lot of that first 30 was down to Silverwood, catching us for everything and letting them get away with just as much. OK, Tickle's 2 penalties were probably justified, but they were messing about just as much. When he started evening things up, we were allowed to play. Some sloppy errors (and a lot of luck) led to 3 of their tries...Rads and Aspi's mistakes second half, and a lucky bounce catching Carney out.
Didn't really see Scully's "report" offence...couldn't see the screen that well from where I was, was it for raising the elbow? How bad was it? I thought Hodgson was in touch when he palmed Moran's penalty back into play though.
Overall, a good win, and lots to build on. Didn't see enough of Gleeson, but he had a steady debut, I thought. Very red hair!
Slightly disappointed with Guisset; didn't seem as effective in the second row, but Scully had a great game...played most of it and was still full of running. Aspi and Wild were fairly quiet in attack, Carney worked hard without quite being at his best, but the spark in midfield was back after a long absence. Everyone played at full intensity for the full 80, which is a welcome change, and we never looked like letting the lead slip away, for a change.
Nice to see Millward geting a great reception from the fans at the end, too...although of course that's natural enough after a good win.
Overall, 7/10, with lots of improvement to come.
Summer rugby! It was very hot just watching; the players were brilliant to keep it going all game.

[max's mum]

Did anyone else notice the sly thumbs up from Betts at the beginning when he and Millward walked across the pitch to the "If you hate St. Helens...." song.

Later on when we kicked the penalty poor Dennis must have forgetten that he isn't head coach cause both of them indicated taking the two, and DB put his hand back down quickly.

Very good to see the fans behind the team and coaches throughout the game.

[silver surfer]

Just read on teletext that Karl Harrison is complaining about the referee, he thinks Sculthorpe should have been sent off and that Silverwood was favouring Wigan

[max's mum]

He'd better be careful or the RFL will fine him £500 + costs too. Harrison that is not Scully.

[Exiled Wiganer]

They just looked so much better. I agree with most of what has been said already, but was hugely encouraged by the greater structure that Millward seems to have given our play in one week.

A couple of things struck me - having Gleeson on the bench must have been a message to the centres to shape up. Aspinwall singularly failed to do that while Wild did good things for us.

Having watched a lot of Dennis Moran over the years in exile I would counsel extreme caution in thinking he can play like he did today consistently. The most we can hope for is every other game from what I have seen, which is good enough for the Broncos but does not make him Wigan class.

Still, v happy that Millward can get more out of them... when he has his own team together next year (and a pack of Cayless, Newton/Godwin, Fletcher, Tickle, Hock and O'Loughlin would have everything) we could see some glory days again.

[max's mum]

Although Brown had a good game I think Orr can add more to the halves with his kicking game. Along with Moran and we have far better options. And when you add Lockers to the mix next year it's looking good.

Millward has said that he won't play Orr until he has regained his fitness, last week he only managed about 30 mins. Lets hope he gives him the same pep talk as Moran got, cause that certainly worked today.

[Doveoverdave]

Yep I'll take the points.

Salford easily outplayed us 1st half and a decent team would have posted winning margin in this 40.

We have huge strides to make.
Overall quality of game poor.

[MrsLam]

Didn't watch it or record it because we're all supersticious but I'll be watching later on. I spent the whole day at work with a grumpy face on while my sister rang me and left voicemails of the Wigan fans singing.
Did we look more inspiring than we have the last few weeks?

[ChrisA]

Ok my summary.
First off, we got the win and thats whats most important, we played a side who dont roll over for anyone, they had the 3rd best defence in SL up until today, so to gety a win at the Willows is a good result.
At times we played the same 1 man rugby that we have seen all season, but at other times we looked like we were trying to move the ball around alot more. Positive signs, but we are still along way away. We made to many basic handling erros yet again, Brown made a few as usual and a few of our offloads went forward. We still stood to flat in attack, but I expect Millward to work on this over the course of time.

Ok the players.

Moran had his best game for us by far today, he was organising better and looked a threat all game, he was always thinking and always looking for a gap, he has shown today that he is upto the job and hes is Wigan class, all the doubters on this board can sit down for the moment, and for once give him some credit. He had a hand or foot in the majority of tries we scored today and his kicking in general was first class.

Danny Sculthorpe showed us another side of his game that we all wanted to see, we all know he can offload and create something from nothing, but what we the fans and I suspect Millward wanted to see was a sustained period on the pitch were he made the hard yards and made the tackles. He played more game time today than in any other game I suspect, and I for one thought he was immense today, on more than one occasion he made 2 hitups in the same set of 6 and made good yards all day,

Dallas, typical display capped by the type of try he should be scoring, he showed up Hodgson and his lack of pace and showed to me why we let him go, he hasnt got the pace for the wing and his ball skills are not good enough for the centre. Dallas needs opportunities like that and he will fisnish them, him and Carney are capable of scoring tries from long range, but they need good service.

All in all it was a good day, blighted by a few school boy erros in parts, if we cut them out we will be a better side on that front alone, silly penalties and unforced errors are really letting us down.