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The most worrying part Matthew was that his greatest strength was superb pace off the mark. He has bulked up too much and now lost that. He was never fast over a distance but over short distances he was once excellent.

I cannot decide who was at fault but he regularly had to stop to catch passes from Bailey and try scoring opps went missing in the first half.

His best play of the match was tackling Kevin Penny who has broken in his own half and was going past Phelps with ease. Other than that Ainsy was not a patch on Goulding tonight.

Ainsy - Bailey - Walker was a dire defensive trio at R1, R2 and R3

cpwigan wrote:The most worrying part Matthew was that his greatest strength was superb pace off the mark. He has bulked up too much and now lost that. He was never fast over a distance but over short distances he was once excellent.

I cannot decide who was at fault but he regularly had to stop to catch passes from Bailey and try scoring opps went missing in the first half.

His best play of the match was tackling Kevin Penny who has broken in his own half and was going past Phelps with ease. Other than that Ainsy was not a patch on Goulding tonight.

Ainsy - Bailey - Walker was a dire defensive trio at R1, R2 and R3

You say he's lost his pace, then admit he caught Penny, who is one of the fastest in the game. The breaks were being made inside Bails, not outside him; blame Bailey and whichever second row was there at the time as much if not more that Ainscough.

Yet again, he's being singled out despite much worse players than him - I await the error/missed tackle stats with interest.

The tackle had nothing to do with pace Geoff. Phelps although missing Penny pushed him towards Ainscough who did not have to run flat out.

Ainscough's pace off the mark is clearly diminished. He is too bulky. It showed in attack tonight.

It seems there was no choice due to injuries but
Phelphs, Bailey, Ainscough :conf:
or Roberts, Gleeson, Goulding
The game would have been over at half time if the latter 3 had played so my early dart (see elsewhere) wouldn't have meant i missed anything..

cpwigan wrote:The tackle had nothing to do with pace Geoff.

Absolute complete and utter rubbish. He chased his man down over about 30m having had to turn around.

Phelps although missing Penny pushed him towards Ainscough who did not have to run flat out.

Ainscough's pace off the mark is clearly diminished. He is too bulky. It showed in attack tonight.

Penny was in open space and Ainscough caught him from behind. Stop inventing faults Aiscough has not got. Lack of pace off the mark my backside.

Dave

cherry.pie wrote: Goulding has proven he's got enough pace.

Do you think he would have caught Penny? I do not.

There is no substitute for pace and I don't really understand what "enough" is. A winger can never have enough if you get my drift.

People do offer Ainscough some sympathy in that he is small so is bound to struggle with the high balls. Can anyone tell me the height difference between Ainscough and Goulding? I can't imagine its more than a couple of cm's at most!

Unless you see Ainscough play in a full strength Wigan side under MM (which Goulding has had the luxury of) don't you think it's a little pointless making the comparison?

Goulding has had Gleeson as his centre and had Ainscugh had that luxury tonight maybe instead of a two on one situation for the try in the first half it might have been Ainscough 1 on 1 v the winger? Who knows but the team was crap tonight and it has not been when Goulding has played most of the time.

Ainscough has also been away at Cas and has not benefited from Wigan's training (one of my objections to a loan as opposed to dual reg which allows it).

He has had to walk into the team after a weeks training and is being compared to a player who has the benefit of being here all season? He is on a hiding to nothing if that is the benchmark.

So IMO, Ainscough hasn't done too much wrong, but hasn't given any reason to be picked on the wing ahead of Goulding if it comes down to a straight choice.

Half the team have no reason to picked next week after tonight.

Dave

DaveO wrote:
Half the team have no reason to picked next week after tonight.

Dave

Exactly. I don't understand why Ainscough is the one to get singled out.

I'm pretty sure the stats will show a lot of players with higher error counts, yet they have hardly had a mention, apart from Bailey (who was probably the worst on show in both attack and defence).

cherry.pie wrote: So if both were fully fit next week and it came down to a straight choice between the 2 you'd pick Ainscough?
I can't say right or wrong as it's down to opinion, but I know I'd go for Goulding in that situation regardless of the who they played with or against because it seems the safer option as it stands.

If we have the same players available elsewhere in the team next week it won't make any difference which of the two is picked IMO. Goulding would have done no better in tonight's team IMO.

It's an interesting question though but a very complicated one and a lot depends on if Ainscough is to go back to Cas or not. If not then if Gleeson is fit I'd play him again to see what he can do outside a decent centre if I was MM because I don't think it's crucial we play Goulding on the wing.

If Gleeson is not fit and Bailey is centre you may as well play me on the wing.

Ainscough is definitely a quick player off the mark, although I doubt he's one of the fastest over long distances (I know it's rarely relevant over that sort of distance in RL). However I don't think the difference between Ainscough and Goulding is necessarily as big as you're suggesting, especially over short distances.
I'd have said Ainscough's low centre of gravity, upper body strength and good footwork are what catch the eye rather than necessarily pace.

Ainscough did do well to catch Penny, but Penny wasn't running anywhere near flat out. When he does 99% will not catch him without a shadow of a doubt.

I like DG but I don't think he would have caught Penny tonight.

Dave

First time I've been able to get on here since Thursday but I just wanna say one thing, can people NOW after that performance put their todgers back in their pants over Sean Ainscough. He is not good enough for our team. Even with injuries.

Having seen the tries on SKY, I see nothing to make me change my mind about his performance.

1st try:

Kick to the corner, sliding defence, Ainscough slides correctly and covers his winger, Bailey fails to slide and the centre scores.

2nd try:

Player runs right between Bailey & Lockers, Ainscough correctly staying on his winger.

3rd try:

player beats Bailey on his outside, Ainscough correctly staying on his winger.

4th try:

multiple missed tackles/offloads allowed in midfield, Orr breaks and is outpacing Mossop & Lockers, Ainscough has to come in to cover, good kick by Orr and Ainscough still almost gets back to prevent the try.

5th try:
Missed tackle by Mossop

6th try:

missed tackles by Riddell, Feca & Phelps.