You hit the nail on the head - 'he just doesn't look interested'. Another clapped out Aussie over here for the easy money.

I'm fully aware of that. I'm afraid that Bowen is nowhere near justifying his reputation. In a game like today he should have been setting a LEADING example. Haven't we been told what a great player we've signed? I'm not interested in excuses like he needs to learn the structures and he doesn't like the weather and other such nonsense. In a game when others ran their bood to water for the cause he looked like he couldn't be bothered. How do you excuse not jumping for the ball? In SAMs worst games he ALWAYS did something in attack. So far Bowen has done the square root of naff all.

I wouldn't criticise a younger player in this manner. It's just that this guy is supposed to be one of the best full backs in the world.

An up and down game from Bowen - but not the only player in that category (but he does give me the distinct impression of someone who does not look wholly certain he has made the right decision or had the right decision forced on him - I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave before the season ends).

Give the lad a chance to play into form. Top quality doesn't just go away over a few weeks of off season.

Didn't Mr Lenegan say he was a marquee signing? At least it helped smooth over the Tomkins transfer a bit at the time.

It did. But I can't help thinking we got the wrong Bowen. "Here's who you could have signed!!!"

We certainly didn't get the speedboat!

I've been less than impressed with Bowen so far. In pre-season I was one of the ones saying to just give him a chance etc and looking at his highlights on YouTube, but the more I see him the more I think he's just completely overweight and unfit. He appears to have either lost the motivation to play well as in his mind he's only here for a short spell to see out his career, or has just lost the ability with his age and physique.

I'm not sure we need a scapegoat really? We were very well beaten by a clearly better side on the day. Their forwards battered us up the middle and our own errors and missed tackles cost us badly. Most Wigan players put a reasonable shift in.
Jamie Peacock hit the nail on the head for me when he talked about salary cap restricting SL because as he said, the most elite athletes will continue to go where the money is.
Yes I'm disappointed we didn't win but we can be proud of our great club.

The first 20 minutes killed us, giving a team like that a 18 - 0 start was never likely to lead to anything other than a defeat - we were playing frantic catch up from then.

I actually think that for the last 15 mins of the first half and a large part of the second half we were competitive - some of the errors late on were due to a mix of trying too hard and fatigue.

Some positives from the game and a few negatives - but there is certainly room for some improvement in the team - defensively we looked lost at first, very vulnerable to busts up the middle and short off-loads (something we struggled with against Hudds as well).

How do you know he is being defiantly overweight? Is he eating pies in front of Wane at training or something?