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cpwigan wrote: If Sam wants to scoot he can do that from 6 or 1 but he needs to be playing 6.

Agreed. Sam is not used to his full potential as 1.

Well if that's the spectacle that Huddersfield fans are treated to on a weekly basis then you can see why their crowds are so sh1te. They came to snipe and spoil and steal an ugly win. And they did.

We're good enough to win in spite of Phil Benthams ineptitude, but his lack of rod with Huddersfield professional fouling and time wasting gifted them opportunity they just shouldn't have had. In addition to the cynical stamping and taking players out on try scoring runs, I think the tone was set very early into the first sin binning when Wigan had a scrum and when Sam went to retrieve the ball from the Hudderfield line, Steven Wild kicked it away from in front of him. I've seen people binned for similar time wasting, but yesterday... That was very poor IMO.

In some regards I'm not overly concerned about yesterday. We were patched up and still looked better than them. We were weak around the wings and that should resolve with Gleeson and Goulding come back in, and Carmont playing a full game. Yesterday really revealed that Pryce and Marsh weren't the dream centre/wing partnership. The Titanic could avoid icebergs quicker than he can turn! And moving Sam to the wing for a spell was frankly just a waste of the best penetrating attacker we had on the pitch.

On a positive, it would seem Fielden has his mojo back and landed a cracker on that d!ck Mason.

I had forgotten about Wild kicking the ball away. I am not even sure Bentham spoke to him about it which if the case is incredulous.

As I said to my wife while watching it on TV, "Wigan are getting sucked in to play Huddersfield's game".
The only thing that bothers me is the fact that Wigan have lost 3 out of 4 home matches against potential Grand Finalists - Wire, Saints and now Hudds.
What happened to "Fortress DW"?

cpwigan wrote:I had forgotten about Wild kicking the ball away. I am not even sure Bentham spoke to him about it which if the case is incredulous.

Childish wasn't it. Spoke volumes about they intended to conduct themselves. I'm just glad we're better than that but as I've said, Bentham wasn't gonna do anything about it which is a shame.

Incidentally, what did everyone make of Brown's comments in his post match interview with Eddie and Stevo. He gave a huge amount of credit to Fielden saying he'd had one of his best games. True enough but I can't decide whether the comment was genuine or an almightly F*** you given how Hudds' niggle had got him sin binned.

May be I'm just getting far too cynical in my old age. :conf:

BriH wrote:As I said to my wife while watching it on TV, "Wigan are getting sucked in to play Huddersfield's game".
The only thing that bothers me is the fact that Wigan have lost 3 out of 4 home matches against potential Grand Finalists - Wire, Saints and now Hudds.
What happened to "Fortress DW"?

I also said that at the match last night. Quite worrying

Not read all of the posts, so sorry if duplicating others comments.
Ref. Bottled some crucial decisions, but we shouldn't have to rely on what he did or didn't do to win a game.


Like it or not, I have to agree with Rads comments from the SS bar "we had 13 players who thought they were Brett Kenny".

Far to many passes in stupid situations and we should not have put Pryce in the position he was left in at the end of the game. Why run a power play with one of the least powerful players. Yes he is consistent and does not make many mistakes, but he isn't going to break tackles and make a clear run of 40 metres.

As for other posts about how dirty Hudds were and what they got away with,we have seen them do this season after season. Petty and niggling things that eat at the players and the clock (god help us if they ever sign Briers).

There's a book called 'Winning Ugly' by a tennis coach called Brad Gilbert (he coached Murray amongst others for a while).

It describes his approach to winning by analysing opponents weaknesses and then playing to them. So he has entire chapters on slowing games down to rattle pace, stonewalling, sledging, stealing momentum and ruining concentration with well timed strategic blowups (think John McEnroe - did you ever see him start screaming at the Umpire if he was winning a game??).

Sound familiar??

weststand-rich wrote:There's a book called 'Winning Ugly' by a tennis coach called Brad Gilbert (he coached Murray amongst others for a while).

It describes his approach to winning by analysing opponents weaknesses and then playing to them. So he has entire chapters on slowing games down to rattle pace, stonewalling, sledging, stealing momentum and ruining concentration with well timed strategic blowups (think John McEnroe - did you ever see him start screaming at the Umpire if he was winning a game??).

Sound familiar??

I don't think Brown is that clever a coach. I think he was basically out for fight for the sake of it.

In any case the tactics used (if that is what they were) were in quite a few instances against the rules such as kicking the ball away and the obstructions. A better ref and they would have backfired. I also doubt you will find stamping in Brad Gilbert's book.

Sledging and milking a penalty have always been in the game but Hudds went beyond that and the fact they got away with it is not entirely Wigan's fault for getting sucked in as some seem to think IMO. Players (and fans) are entitled to expect the game to be played closer to the rules than what we saw on Sunday. As someone else said if that is what Hudds fans get each week, then they can keep it.

Dave

gpartin wrote:All other things being equal:

Goulding in for Pryce = we win.

First professional foul carded = we win

Carmont stays on = we win

Prescott instead of Davies = we win

Mason sent off = we win

Bearing in mind all the injuries prior to the game, mistakes during the game, Hudds current form and desire to win etc I am astonished how much some Wigan fans are looking into this as a bad omen for the playoffs and stuff on RLfans. Absolutely everything apart from the weather was against us winning the game yet we lost by only two points a change in any single one of those circumstances and the result would have been different and the doubters amongst our own fans would be saying how well we did in the circumstances as I am now.

I agree with this 100%. Even considering all of this we could, and should, have still won easily.