I am likewise born 'n' bred Wigan, now living a similar distance away.
Every game, home or away is costly, both in time and money, I reached the conclusion a long time ago that I have been getting a very poor return on " effort to reward" not just from Wigan but from RL in general.
Friday night games have long been a nightmare for anyone needing to use the motorway to get to a match, but the concept of the Thursday match is even worse as, if you have work the following day you can't stop over. With the current league structure and too many meaningless games I made the reluctant decision to select my matches this season and I wasn't at Widnes last night. I didn't need to be there to witness the effort or the lack of it described on here, I have seen it too many times in previous seasons, in fact I could have almost predicted it.
All clubs (because of the RL) are in the service of "Sky" and once again the, "exiting climax to the season" suits our puppet masters.
In the world of horseracing, most horses are ridden by jockeys "under instructions" putting in just the required amount of effort to prepare them for one of the seasons "classics"
Come the play off's you will see all 8 teams truly compete with determination, and any one of them could win, however I would be surprised if the trophy ends up anywhere other than Wigan or Leeds as they are the only real thoroughbreds in the race this year.

Yes, I'll agree our defence looked good but did Leeds really throw anything at it? Leeds were so poor and looked clueless in attack as did we for the most part. Thought we won the game because we weren't quite as bad as they were.

I've just watched the game and to be honest after seeing it again I take back a few things I said earlier. It was quite a good game and although our attack wasn't as crisp as it could have been it definitely wasn't woeful. The forwards played really well but we did look second best when flower/Crosby weren't on the field. So overall a pretty good performance and a vast improvement from the last couple of games.

I didn't think either team was as good as they can be last night. Wigan played at a high intensity, and were excellent in the first half, and probably should have been further ahead, saying that I don't recall too many scoring opportunities. 2nd half I thought Wigan were quite poor and had Leeds been able to stop dropping the ball in good field position it could have been a lot closer, but Wigan didn't need to get out of 2nd gear in the 2nd half, and comfortably deserved the win.
Hopefully, with a full team out the result will be different if we meet in the play offs.

I dont wan to state the bleedin obvious, but both sides didn't want to show their set moves 2 weeks before the play offs, so to criticise the attacking play is pointless. On that basis it was a very bizarre match to judge, however Wigan did want the result that bit more on the night, Leeds showed a little more caution in some parts of the match and it really didnt suit them. Whats important for Wigan is improving the completion rate and not gaining any more injuries & bans. A job well done

Smart piece of coaching by Wane for me. At Magic Weekend we battered Peacock to deny Leeds their go forward. Last night, already without Burrow and McGuire, we closed down Sinfield at every opportunity to ensure their play making was limited. Hence the Smith interception as Sinfield forced to pass hurriedly to a teammate in a no better kicking position on tackle 5 own half.