18 - 40 ? I was working this evening, just seen the result . Dear God !

Oh, I agree, I don’t think not picking Harvie Hill makes a difference to that result. It was just a response to the post above that mentioned not having enough props in the side. That had nothing to do with the result but it could do on another day and I just feel Peet has a bit of Brian Noble about him, in that he seems to pick his side in order of seniority and if that leaves us short of a prop, a halfback or whatever, he is fine with that. It’s easy to say ‘play a kid’ when you’re sat on your backside, watching it with a beer in your hand though (like me).

I take your point about the approach.. We don’t look as slick as last year and you wonder if the Briers exits has impacted on that. I do think we’ve taken an approach this year of targeting blocks of games, rather than going hard every week and that is also impacting on how slick we are with the ball. The visible lift in intensity for Leigh, Saints and Wire was unreal and the drop off after has been even more obvious. I think the next plan would’ve been to target the cup game, HKR, Magic and Saints away. I think we’ll see a huge lift again but unfortunately last night may have hit the sides confidence that hard that even going through the gears in terms of intensity may not be enough.

Cust doesn’t deserve a spot in the 17. He is probably the worst halfback I have seen at Wigan since the days of our relegation. Austin had a field day against him. We need a genuine No 6 not a makeshift. Cust does not have the pace or technical ability to play in that role, at least when Shorrocks was in that position our defence was much better. The only solution is to give Hampshire a gig, Smith badly needs some assistance.

What do you see in Cust?

You don’t think having enough props was an issue? Our props were knackered in the 2nd half and needed subbing.

We could’ve done with another yes but I don’t think it changes the result in the slightest. A lack of props didn’t make us throw ridiculous intercept passes, fall off tackles (from the start of the second half) or generally act like deers caught in headlights. If we’d have put Harvie Hill in (as I would’ve done and would do on Saturday), I don’t see the result changing because it was all attitude based IMO.