Quote: Oxford Exile "..what does that say about your prop?
you were clear favourites on your own ground...with the better form... '"
as much as I agree with a fair bit of your post (although with hicks, Riley, King and Atkins in the backs I can't see how or why you're trying to claim your team was weakened by having Bridge out to be honest) but the prop comment is totally unfair as the hit on Fielden although totally legal was as he was virtually on the deck and not braced for impact and he was hit clean in the face with a force something similar to a heavyweight boxing champion having a free shot without any warning. Under normal circumstances he would have been given plenty of recovery time and probably not returned until the 2nd half if at all. What Stu actually did is asked to get back on as soon as possible because he knew the prop situation wasn't good and didn't want to let his team mates down and although I've not seen the stats I know he made mistakes when he came back on but I bet he was still one of our top tacklers and the situation would have been far worse for us without him.
Regarding the point you make about Wigan being clear favourites I thought the bookies and anyone suggesting this was barmy so much so that having never placed a bet before I went to the bookies and bet on a Warrington win. We don't have a good record against top teams when we play with less than 4 props in and Coley has been brilliant for us this year so I knew along with the fact that Amos Roberts wasn't looking too confident and McIlorum out that we were always going to struggle against the leagues biggest pack in what was a must win game for you in terms of the league primarily but also to shake off your unfair reputation of being chokers against the top teams.
I find it quite amusing how you suggest that we were poor for not converting our early pressure into more points when we were playing against a totally fresh fully fit defence made up of more internationals than any team in the world, yet you put it down to bad luck that Myler didn't get a hattrick in the periods of pressure you had against a completely knackered defence with players carrying injuries in it. Pat Richards failing to ground the ball and Carmont having a foot in touch are examples of bad luck are they not? Perhaps we should have scored far more early on but given the fact we didn't there's no way we should have still been in with a chance of winning so late in the game with all the possession you had but with the angle you describe it from I suggest you apply for a job at Sky.
As a Wigan fan I'm extremely proud of how our team with an average age of something daft like 23 managed, in the face of adversity, to stay within 7 points of a team who, if they showed the same level of determination as they did on Friday, would have put 50 past any other club in Super League except perhaps Saints or Leeds. Previous Wigan sides would have thrown in the towel which would have affected our points difference which given our remaining games seem a bit harder than yours this could be quite important. Saints and Leeds can never be written off in knockout games but I would really love to see a Wigan v Wire Grand Final. I'll finally shut up after this but I think Tony Smith's comments after the game were fantastic there seems to be a mutual respect between both coaches.
