Match Reaction: Wigan 8 Huddersfield 22

[ancientnloyal]

Another LOSS- not surprised. How much longer can we stand this muck?
seriously?

[TedMac]

Please, please, please Mr Lenagan - cut your losses, admit defeat and give Brian Noble his cards. We've got his (and our)annual humiliation against Saints very soon and we would struggle to beat Celtic Crusaders on present form.
How many more years will we continue to be a sad shadow of what we were?
Most of the players are better than this. Get Morgan or Shaun E or Faz cracking the whip and turn them into a WIGAN team!!!!!

[GeoffN]

Looks like I'm the first one back...OK:

First off, don't be fooled by the scoreline, the better side lost, IMO, and with a bit better luck, and a real referee, we'd have won at a canter. We were inches away from scoring on at least 6 occasions; Roberts twice, Hock, Feca, McIlorum & Leuluai all came close (in fact Roberts' second looked OK from where I was. Couldn't tell with Hock's, but the crowd reaction from the South Stand suggested he'd scored.

Both our tries were out wide, and in that wind can't really blame Pat for missing. By contrast, they were given two penalties right in front of the sticks, and their try was an easy conversion, too. At 10-8, (and two tries to one) it was still very winnable, until we started trying to chase the game and let them in for those two late ones (one of which looked extremely dodgy) that made the scoreline look lopsided. Can't blame Ainscough for missing that kick, either; at that point in the game we had to try and counter-attack rather than concede a drop-out.

Huddersfield came to niggle and spoil, and Bentham let them get away with it all game (which is partly why the fights broke out, IMO.

MoM for me was Hock. He was involved in everything, both in attack and defence.

[cpwigan]

Shame they pulled away at the end and young Ainscough made the mistakes. Not that one should blame him. It was a poor game as one expects in those conditions with lots of errors from both teams at different times and some indifffirent officiating.

Gaz Hock knocking on after he had done the hard work and the try looked certain was costly in the long run. However, we did not threaten enough in the first half when by and large we dominated field position.

After that we failed to take advantage of 13 v 12 and only looked like scoring at 12 v 12. Our kicking game which is vital in such poor conditions was woeful. A brief spell when Sam kicked short very well showed what difference it can make. Unfortunately Huddersfield really toughed the game out and minimised errors.

A team that has a definite structure will invariably do better in such conditions. Huddersfield had more to fall back on whereas off the cuff RL was not the order of the day and likely to fail in such poor conditions. Huddersfield having 3 playmaker / organisers in Moore, Robinson and Brown meant they played the conditions better. For some reason we never got the small men; Tommy, Sam, Ainscough running with the ball particularly against there forwards in centre field.

Fielden was embarassingly poor.

We may also lose Hansen for 4 or moore games because his attack on Moore looked cheap to me and not what Wigan RLFC is about. He was very fortunate not to be given a straight red.

[cpwigan]

I don't think we were the better team Geoff

I could not say re Amos first disallowed try but the ingoal was a yard away. I do know that Hock lost the ball for his early effort. Not sure why but he's done it in an earlier game this season. He seems to want to reach out with the ball to ground it even though he is already over the line and could just let events take their course and he would score.

[GeoffN]

I think our attack was lot better than you suggest, cp, and I'd say the refereeing was a lot worse than "indifferent". Robinson should have been yellow carded earlier for pulling Lockers back when he looked certain to score, and their loose forward should also have gone for a late hit on Leuluai after a kick. Several ball steals were given as knock-ons against us, and they were constantly offside and not square at marker.

[fred_flintstone]

Harsh IMO

That scoreline was flattering. Hudds came with one purpose and that was to spoil the game whatever way they could. Their tactics were cynical to say the least and if there was a vid ref we'd have won.

Saying that, we desperately need a leader and some steel in that pack.

[neilbass]

Agreed cp we weren't the better team. Scoreline definitely flattering though.
Too many spells in the game where we lacked ideas and made obvious plays. The first try being an exception where Carmont's angled run took them by surprise - making the try.
Huddersfield took their chances to take points from penalties and for so long at 4-10 and 8-10 it looked like that would be the difference.
They did a decent job of taking Sam out of the game, but I thought Leuleui did well throughout.
Hock knock-on over the line was poor - the try was there. Good to see Roberts finish off a move properly.
Felt sorry for Ainscough at the end - he hardly saw the ball during the game, and when he did it was running through his legs with opposition piling through to score.
Awful refereeing again from Bentham. Sure that if there'd been a video ref that penultimate try would not have stood.
Massive improvements needed.

[East Stand Faithful]

Hudds poor, Wigan poor, ref poor, crowd poor (first time I have ever walked across the canal bridge without queing), even gemma knocked on in that box thing.

At one stage in the 2nd half Coley ran 20 yards sideways along the half way line. If that was an under 8s winger the kid would be bollocked for not going forward. Coley is a pro prop.

[GeoffN]

Hudds poor, Wigan poor, ref poor, crowd poor (first time I have ever walked across the canal bridge without queing), even gemma knocked on in that box thing.

At one stage in the 2nd half Coley ran 20 yards sideways along the half way line. If that was an under 8s winger the kid would be bollocked for not going forward. Coley is a pro prop.

Treue, but I thought Coley had a pretty good game again, overall. Fielden, yet again, was our 4th best prop.

I don't have nuch time for Noble, as you know, but I think he's pretty accurate this time with his post-match thoughts.

Warriors Coach Brian Noble was asked afterwards whether at 8-10 he thought Wigan were on the way back to win the game,

"I did, I thought for long parts of the game we were physically dominant, they probably kicked a bit better than we did but I can't remember a break they made so we definately bent our backs pretty well but we conceded a couple of late kick tries.

"I don't think we have had much help this evening in relation to the way we wanted to play the game. I think a couple of decisions went against us, I'm not particularly talking about the style of what happened but the in goal touch judge at one end has knocked us one off and given them one where our players are pretty adamant that it was no where near a try, their first one.

"Whilst I take responsibility for what we do, I thought we didn't kick as well as we could have, I thought we were physically dominant for most of that game and didn't quite get the just rewards. Our execution was not as good at times as it should have been, neither was our patience. They got to the end of the field and just kicked a bit better than us. We were a whole lot closer than the score suggests, I thought at 8-10 we would have gone on and won it but a couple of things went against us."