Yes i did enjoy it. It was a full blooded Derby match, with both teams giving everything. I was standing by the number 2 pillar in the pop side. I dont think we did much wrong in the first half. What we did do wrong we did very wrong however. Wigan are currently destroying teams week in and week out. They did not destroy us and we had them rocking in the second half, with a little more composure and a little bit of long overdue 'rub of the green' we could have easily won that game.

The thread is not about taking pops at fans who dont go to away matches i understand people cant afford to or work. The reason i am asking fans who go to away matches is cause they are there and can see the whole peformance. It's just an observation that we seem to play better away. It nothing i can put my finger on, we just seem more relaxed away from home, just wondered if anyone else had noticed.

Saints bottled it on friday!!!!

I disagree. I think we approached the game wrong and too much was made of the last Derby at KR etc.... Certain players were far to up for it. Wigan were much calmer and played their normal game. With that said they only beat us via goal kicking. They did beat us though and while i agree the ref was poor, he was no worse than any other of the refs currently. The current interpretation of the rules is killing us, It goes against all our strenghts and rewards negative play. But thats another argument!!!!! He did not give all the penalties away and knock on on the pies line time after time.

If that match was at the DW Stadium, yes i honestly believe we would have played better and i would not at all be surprised if we do beat them at DW. Wigan currently are the best team in SL. they desrerve to be top and they deserved their win on Friday.

Well the majority of next season will see us AWAY, if we are to play at Widnes RLFC. So thats plenty of win win wins for us.

I agree with that. Once everyone has played them the first time around then coaches and teams will be wise to their tactics and find ways around them. We were getting that way in the second half, if only we'd been able to put our heads on right. Still, we're doing ok in terms of results and we have enough players in each match who have outstanding matches to keep our attack ticking over, albeit with some hiccups near the line sometimes.

Agreed.

We are going to suffer losses on the way though, with the subsequent much gnashing of teeth on here at times as people want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

In my opinion the match on Friday was won with the coin toss.

Both sides scored 2 tries to none with the wind at their backs. The difference was that Wigan got to do it in the first half, and you can go for your kickable penalties when you're in front.

We were chasing the game second half and that is always more difficult. You don't take 2 points when they're on offer because you feel you need to score tries to drag the game back. You push passes you wouldn't normally push because you see yourself behind on the scoreboard.

It was a good tense derby and could have gone either way. When you look at that game and the Hull KR game, we could easily be at the top of the tree ourselves. No need to panic, we'll be right up there challenging this year.

A coin toss is giving the Monkey People too much credit and us too little criticism.