Well what happened there? Bradford 22 Wigan 20

[exile in Tiger country]

We seemed to lose our attacking flair when Deacon came on, maybe a positional change too many?
Second half we thought the game was already won, and then tried too hard to force passes when Bratfrt came back at us.

[Kiwiseddon]

Waking up this morning I'm a bit more philosophical. I, like everyone else was riding the wave of Wigan's success over the last month. Boy oh boy did I come crashing down to reality last night.
However I genuinely believe that in the long run this will be of benefit to us. Yeah there were weak links last night but up until last night the team were playing great and we weren't criticising anyone really 'cos the results kept coming in. Fair play to Bratfurt. They do have some great players.

I thought Deacs maybe tried a bit too hard against his old
club, which is to be expected unfortunately.

Incidentally..... Did anyone else see what Wagger Godwin did in the changing room after the game.

[Exiled Wiganer]

I think that we were always going to slip back from the high standards of the last few weeks, and think this defeat could do Wigan a lot of good. We are playing a completely different game this year and MM will have learnt more about the side from tonight than in any number of easy wins. If we are strong at home and win half the difficult away games we can be top 2.
We may have lost but we are still top. As a body of work the first 5 games have had far more positives than negatives.

[cpwigan]

It was just one of those freakish games and lest people forget we (I) saw great Wigan teams get turned over very similarly v Saints which hurt far more.

Dave O I cannot believe you are labouring your Amos point. I does you no credit whatsoever. Amos has been amazing this season. I do not weven consider 2009 with Amos as clearly there was some issue (one big one BTW was that he was unhappy in part because his family were not here etc) 2010 Amos has made A mistake. In return he has won us games, nearly/should have helped us win last night. When the grounds harden then he will be even more awesome.

Ultimately the team forgot the basics. They still defended superbly in the first 40 but they were asking for trouble through being unprofessional. The Carmont injury created major problems. Not because we lost George in itself but because wwe also lost an outstanding second rower. Joel T hass been fantastic for us and incredibly hard working.

Any coach can make mistakes and IMO Bailey playing so long BUT not at centre was asking for trouble and as Eclipse says it was a woeful effort on Orford. It was a great last guard effort near the touchline by him but he shows how far from full match fitness he is.

First up tackles started to go awery. Piggy was totally unprofessional. It is not schoolboy stuff were you ignore what you are doing just to try putting a hit on your best mate in the other team. Glen Hall was worth his weight in gold to the Bulls.

The game showed how vital Mossop is will be. A player who can play prop / second row. Young, athletic. I hope Liam Farrell gets some time in the 17 too this season.

I do not think Feka will survive under Madge and Deacon's time will be limited when Mickey Mac comes back or injury.

A frweakish game / result but I feel sure we will come out next week and turn Hull over.

[Woodentop07]

We made more mistakes in the first half than we had done all season!! The game should have been won in the first half.
We have had a very good start to the season and I am looking forward to how we respond to this defeat. Team for next week:
1. Phelps
2. Roberts
3. Gleeson
4. Carmont
5. Richards
6. Sam Tomkins
7. Tommy
8. Fielden
9. Riddell (Only because McIlorum is not fit)
10. Coley
11. Hansen
12. Joel Tomkins
13. O'Loughlin
Subs - Prescott, O'Carroll, Mossop, Deacon

It's going to be a long week!!

[weststand-rich]

Disappointment seems to be the summary all round.

I thought 20-0 flatttered the bulls in the first half and if our chances had come off we would have been leading 30+ points. Given the absolute terrotorial advantage we had in the first half I can't fathom why we flagged so much.

I'm also baffled as to why we tried to close the game down with 40 minutes to go but just faded. The 2 quick tries that got the bulls back in seemed to come about from tired defence down the middle and points to tired props - I think somebody else alluded to an over reliance on Fielden and Coley and that's true.

CP, I think you're right RE Feka. His days under mcguire will be numbered unless he starts to radically improve his mobility and defensive line speed. Mcguire seems to have even less confidence in him than Nobby and I think last night his game time was less than under even Nobbys reign.

No need to throw the baby out with the bath water, but Humpty Dumpty requires some duty of care.

[BriH]

A good wake-up call.
With a bit of luck and better execution, it would have been 38-0 at half time.
Maybe a bit of complacency crept in after last weeks win.
MM is too good a coach not to have noticed where he needs to make changes - particularly with the forwards.
Let's blow Hull away next week!

[cpwigan]

We certainly did not respect the game TEW and therefore the opponents. Good wake up call. This team needs to work hard as do all great teams.

[kick it int duggie again]

The problem was this, in the first half Wigan did what Bradford did not want us to do, and that was play it out wide and in the second we let them do what they have done for the last 150 years and that is play it down the middle with the forwards. Bradford are and always will be a dour, boring, unimaginative club and will win nothing, we on the other hand......fill in the gaps.

[ian.birchall]

It was a very rare error. Every player makes them. The player that continually makes them is the problem. I think Oscar Wilde or Jack Gibson once said to make a mistake once is human, to make the same mistake twice is foolish.

Tad like somebody habitually defending 1 player each season. Next you will tell us Higham should be back playing for us because Piggy made two glaring errors with juvenille antics in defence simply because he was playing v his best mate.

I thought the real mistake when we were sitting dangerously on a 4 point lead with 10 minutes left was to take off LuLu and replace him with Riddell