Matty Bowen

[menpond]

For the last 3 years Wane and Radders have muttered off season of players being too small. So why spend heavily against cap ona small ageiing unnecessary full back?Wane has been and always will be clueless.

[gillysmyhero]

When the balls up in the air it moves and for me it wrong footed him. Were was his protection. It was a mistake he didn't shit out in my opinion.im sorry for my keyboard warrior comments,Bowen didn't lose us the game we blew a lot of chances to put points on the board. We missed to many tackles and dropped to much ball and looked clueless near the line.

[GBH]

Bowen made a mistake on the high ball but he got absolutely no protection, to help him take it, we made way to many mistakes, we have all year looked hopeless when we get to the opposition try line, no flare or new ideas.
There defense was as good as ours when Maguire was here and we had no reply to it, Josh and Budge saw no ball on the wing they only saw the ball taking it up the middle.
We had the ground and we dominated for long periods but we just cant score tries when we need to.

[sheepsteeth]

As I said earlier why do we hardly ever do our switch play with all the dummy runners? We scored many a try on the back of it.

Bowen was good last night but his effort at the end was awful. He has to jump even if he spills it he makes it harder for Jones who may well have knocked on too.

Lots of little errors though, Gelling, Williams kicking on the 3rd when we'd been camped on their line and Bateman picking the fullback up when we had them pinned.

I don't think Budgie looked fit and I also think Manfredi needs to come in because our wingers were rubbish bring the ball out. I think we miss sarge when we're coming from our own end even if he doesn't make a break that step of his leads to a few penalties and quick ptb's

I'd be tempted to play Gelling because we look a bit shy of line breakers but I'd tell him he'll be fined a weeks wages for every offload outside the oppositions 30m that didn't go to a Wigan player.

Oh and finally please for the love of all that is decent play MM for 80 mins.

[Wigan_forever1985]

its not about a mistake like TBW says, fans on the main can handle mistakes, if jones had out jumped him and got the ball fair enough but he just did nothing, he is a full back he cant always rely on protection

Look at it from the other team, bowen and quinlan both contests 2 high balls on the wigan attack, on neither occasion did quinlan get anywhere near catching it, however by contesting it he also made sure that Bowen didnt catch it.

I like TBW am not blaming bowen for the loss there was 78minutes of error and opportunity before, but the fact of the matter is, if he catches it or stops jones from catching it we are 99% going to win the game.

Bowen did this last year in the playoffs, he played well but at the end of the day he will get peppered with bombs from now on and he must at the very least compete

[sheepsteeth]

its not about a mistake like TBW says, fans on the main can handle mistakes, if jones had out jumped him and got the ball fair enough but he just did nothing, he is a full back he cant always rely on protection

Look at it from the other team, bowen and quinlan both contests 2 high balls on the wigan attack, on neither occasion did quinlan get anywhere near catching it, however by contesting it he also made sure that Bowen didnt catch it.

I like TBW am not blaming bowen for the loss there was 78minutes of error and opportunity before, but the fact of the matter is, if he catches it or stops jones from catching it we are 99% going to win the game.

Bowen did this last year in the playoffs, he played well but at the end of the day he will get peppered with bombs from now on and he must at the very least compete

When I was 9 I played football and the other team had a 9 year old that was about a foot bigger than everyone else. When I spoke to my dad at half time he asked why I didn't jump with the lad for a header. I said coz I couldn't beat him he's too big. My dad told me to jump with him because I'll at least put him off.

Bowen could do with having a word with my dad.

[cpwigan]

Matty has shone recently but last night was a disaster particularly for someone so experienced. Competing for any ball v taller opponents you get up FIRST. Doing nothing is not an option!

[Wandering Warrior]

Something we can all agree on.

You assume you know folks opinions on the matter?
You don't know my opinion on the matter.
Point is he's gone from zero to hero to zero again in a matter of weeks. If we are fortunate enough to get to GF who should we play at full back? It's blatantly obvious to me that there is only one option. Furthermore we'll still probably only have one option next year, and given ST'S injury problems this year that is a big worry!
It is what it is, if he's not up to the job then that's not his problem if he's picked!!!

[Southern Softy]

Something we can all agree on.

You assume you know folks opinions on the matter?
You don't know my opinion on the matter.
Point is he's gone from zero to hero to zero again in a matter of weeks. If we are fortunate enough to get to GF who should we play at full back? It's blatantly obvious to me that there is only one option. Furthermore we'll still probably only have one option next year, and given ST'S injury problems this year that is a big worry!
It is what it is, if he's not up to the job then that's not his problem if he's picked!!!

Well you did ask the question. He hasn't gone from 'hero to zero' - he simply confirmed what most/some/all/one (delete where applicable) of us thought. Excellent and inventive in attack - highly suspect in defence and dubious in big matches. He will doubtless play in the GF IF we reach it (and that's not a given) and it will be then up to the coach to ensure that we take players from other parts of the defence to protect him under the high ball. It's not the best way to enter a match, worried that a key defender will mess up but I suppose we don't have a choice.
Personally, I'd probably play Hampshire because I've seen Bowen under pressure.

[Owd Codger]

You are all going on about Bowen and his terrible mistake at the end which cost us the game, but what about O'Loughlin losing the ball going over the line for a certain try and from the resultant play, Saints going to the other end of the pitch and scoring.

Sean had a poor game in my opinion and does not look fully fit.