Great result, great defence, well done!
Gutted I couldn't attend the MW this year - working abroad - but watched via VPN on Sky Go in my apartment in Bangkok. Enjoy the celebrations!

I listened to the game at a guest house in Garmisch with a very perplexed Begium Mrs not having a clue what was happening.

Brilliant result and a real stepping stone for further improvement.

I'm back for the Wakefield home match, and will also go to exiles match before coming back to Thailand - that will then be season over for live matches for me!
(Although, I'll be watching Man U versus Singha Allstars in BKK on 12th July!! - Result!!).

Here's a radical idea for this forumappearing[/i to be offside when, really, it's just we're too slow. I also thought Adam Walne played well. Another homegrown player from the club that doesn't produce its own players. Jordan James doesn't get the credit he deserves on here, but, for me, he's been playing well all season. Still a bit suspect with ball security (although it looked to me - and to some of the people around me - that his knock-on which led to the first Widnes try was as a result of a chicken-wing tackle, and when the referee blew, I actually thought it was to award the penalty).

In the backs, I thought Marc Sneyd outplayed his 'world class' opponent, which, presumably, makes him 'universe class' or something. He forced Widnes back onto their own line with some very intelligent kicking. Compare that with the kicking game of the vastly over-rated Kevin Brown, who seemed to make it his mission to either find Marc Sneyd with every kick, or to see how hard he could hit the advertising hoardings behind the Salford goal. Ryan McGoldrick also played well, as did Martin Gleeson, and Jodie Broughton looked livelier than he has of late. Harsh decision to disallow his try, I thought, because you could equally argue that Lee Gaskell was obstructed by the Widnes player.

Overall, though, I thought our MoM was Stephen Wild. Unless I'm very much mistaken, he played the full 80 minutes, and was all over the field. A lot of the tackles where we wrestled well seemed to involve Stephen Wild.

So, I think we've seen a massive improvement over the past three games. However, you could argue that the improvement in performance has coincided with a reduction in the quality of opponent: Warrington -> Bradford -> Widnes. I guess next week will be a better test of the Noble effect.

Good post RJ,
Novel idea as well.
Nearly 24 hours has passed and I thought there had been a bet placed on NOT mentioning Liam Foran.
It was,of course,his tackle,his desperation,his desire and determination to get under the Widnes player to prevent the try in the first half and that sprit was imbued by his teammates.
The thanks owed to the VR for that decision was destroyed by the travesty over Jodies try.
I did notice a vast improvement from JJ when Alan Hunte was in charge.Hope he keeps it going.

Jordan James has improved a lot for us over the last few weeks.

Thought that the Widnes player almost ran straight into Gaskell for Broughton's try, but Gaskell made the mistake of throwing out his arm across the body of the chasing player so the video ref pretty much had to disallow it.

Hanbury did nothing of note for them but probably wasn't up to full fitness.

Thought we deserved the win overall and it was all the more sweeter given the comments I've seen from some of the opposition fans recently!

Good post Red John. My only disagreement was McGoldrick. Not doubting his endeavour yesterday but he was caught for speed a couple of times and I really would like to see him at left centre & Gaskell at stand off next week at Warrington.

I also think Gaskell should be playing six he would give use a lot more speed a better kicking game and a better attack he is a lot better half back then mcgoldrick

Who would you play in the Centre? I'd like to see Gaskell given a go at six but right now I think it would give us a different problem defensively. Play Gibson in the centre and we all know his defence is a weakness or play McGoldrick and he lacks pace.

I play mcgoldrick in centres he would have Gaskell inside and Jodie outside him to cover is lack of speed
I would try it this weekend at wire

He got caught out for Mellor's hat trick try, but apart from that I thought he played well. He's not the long term solution to our stand-off problem (that's Rangi Chase and/or Benji Marshall, obviously) but he's doing OK there. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing him swap places with Lee Gaskell. When he (Gaskell) first burst into the St Helens team, he was being touted as a future international stand-off, and there's nothing to lose by trying him there.

when we attack normally the half backs will have a totally different defensive position so gaskell defending in a position then going to the half when we have the ball.

Gaskell is very menacing and dangerous with the ball in hand. It's a tough one because with him and Gleeson our centres are very strong and given enough ball outside could cause havoc. Fages and Chase in our halves next season should see to that too.