I would suggest you think about the DW match and reconsider. As Simmons said in his post match interview, we were too lateral in attack. We didn't run on to the ball, we didn't back up, we flung it out wide when we should have struck from the middle. Why did we do these things? Because our halfbacks were missing. Leon Pryce didn't turn up today, made some howlers and in actual fact, due to Wigan's superb defence in the first half, we actually had the wrong stand off on the pitch. We needed Lee Gaskell. We have scored tries from his kicks. Kicking was the only thing that would have given us tries in the first half. Poor old Jon Wilkin tried his hardest but we needed a skilled kicker and he was on the bench. That, IMO, was the only mistake Simmons made as coach today. The rest was down to Wigan and our own players.

What I thought was very encouraging was that we took the game to Wigan and we disrupted them. Damn shame we couldn't make the kill but them's the breaks and I just hope that Roby and Graham playing with serious injuries hasn't ruined our chances of beating Hudds on Friday. That is a very important game for us if we are to get something from this crazy season.

And we do deserve something IMO.

We're not as good as Warrington or Wigan. 3rd is fine for us, we don't deserve to win anything.

I wouldn't be sure of 3rd mate.

Assuming we can field a team on Friday night, then we will find out whether we deserve to be third on Friday night, won't we? If we lose then we don't deserve it and it's unlikely we will get anything from the season.

When was the last time we didn't make a final?

2005 wasn't it? We were undone by injuries to our key players if I remember.

Near perfect, really?

Numerous knock ons, clueless kicking a lot of the time, stupid penalties.

The game wasw there for you to win today, but you didn't capitalise on your dominance in the first half.

Firstly, well played. Defensively i thought both teams were excellent today. Both teams looked very nervous, certainly in the first 30.

As mentioned previously in the thread the biggest difference was Sam T v Wellens. You desperatly need a full back with pace. The role of full back has changed significantly since Wellens started playing, with respect to him as he has been a great player over the years for you, his place is at Widnes/Salford now.

I think the other big difference was team selection. You had too many players on the pitch who shouldn't have been there. Maguire chose not to select Hock as he is not up to speed yet. Simmons picked Graham who should never of played. Pryce is a top class player and did his best but was obviously not up to speed.

With a few more bodies nearing full fitness for the play offs you will be in with a shout. Us on the other hand will be knackered by then. Unfortunatly for both of us it may be the year of the wolf

I notice you haven't found your way onto the Wigan board this evening

at least we didnt knock on or give any penalties away

for me the 2 best teams in the league there and cancelled each other out.

Certainly cancelled each other out, two robotic teams putting on a very dull encounter for the neutrals.

Suppose that was a glimpse of what SL will be like in 5 years when everyone adopts Wigans wrestling style.

Of course it would be much better if everyone adopted sloppy defense instead. That way we would all get to watch a high volume of easy tries, right?

Didn't your very own Micky Higham recently get banned for 2 matches as a result of doing dangerous tackle? Seems like your new to them already.

Yes it would be, as opposed to 20 second tackles, starting to turn into Union the amount of time each tackle takes.

It never fails to amaze me how some people whinge about good defense being "boring" whilst completely failing to realise that excitement will be totally absent if points are easy to come by. Teams like Wigan make it difficult to score, and that's good for the English game. And when everybody else's attack catches up it will be even better, especially for the neutrals to watch (though the games this year which have been touted as great adverts for Rugby League are Wigan-Saints Good Friday and Wire-Wigan QF). Until then, fans should stop whinging and ask more of their own clubs instead of expecting Wigan to make it easy for them. Watching Wire put 60 past Salford is extremely boring mate. What next, a letter to Mike Maguire "Please sir, let us score." Pathetic.