I know in the modern era it doesn't mean much to drop points at this time of the year. However we have dropped 5 points out of a possible 14 all to the teams around us at the top. We seem to be good at keeping out the lesser teams and piling the points up, however its in attack I think we struggle against the better teams. I don't know if its because we come up against a better defence of the fact we lose confidence a bit as we never seem to move the ball around against the likes of Warrington etc... Is it that we are handled better or the fact we play more safety conscious?

Rubbish Wigan! Wane out.

On a serious note, I think you'll see the best of us when we get our key forwards back and the pitches are dry. Green and Smith are still getting used to eachother yet. Be patient, we'll be fine.

We've dropped points to Huddersfield & Leeds, because man for man they are better than us at the moment. I expect to finish below Leeds this season - maybe Huddersfield too as long as they dont do their regular 2nd half of the season nose-dive. I certainly expect us to finish below Warrington and possibly even St Helens.

Weve lost 2 games against top 5 sides with half our pack and Tomkins missing! The over reaction on here and the other sites is cringeworthy!! We'll be fine! Our best 13 when everyone is fit is arguebly as good as anthing in Super league

Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Hughes/Thornley
Richards
Green
Smith
Prescott
McIlorum
Mossop
Hansen
Farrell
O Loughin

If we finish in the top 4, which IMO we will, then we have a massive chance of Winning the GF providing we dont pick up a lot of injuries.

For me the result means nothing.

It does, however, highlight the facts of the competition.

We could play immaculately all year, one game like last night and it's season over.

With a side missing Tomkins Mossop Prescott Hansen and Lauaki then losing Dudson I'm more than happy with that performance. To coin a Roberto Martinez phrase "there are plenty of positives"

I think that you could and should have won last night. You missed a trick by not constantly bombing Watkins at fullback at every opportunity. When you kicked to him from long range he was making 40 metres at a time, but on the 2-3 occasions that you bombed him he didn't have a clue where the ball was. You also need to give Charnley more protection in defence, he was badly exposed on occasions last night. Very impressed with Farrel again, he's really come on so far this year.

I’m not too worried at the minute, and I must say we have had a better start with the games we’ve had than I thought we would have at the beginning of the season. None of the big teams you speak of have found it easy against our, for what has been for the most part, very good defence. Wire needed luck on the night, and though I’m very happy with the way Blake Green is progressing with his partnership with Matty Smith, his missed tackle on Jones-Buck took the shine off what for the most part was a solid game. One or two who I thought were not up to par, Josh Charnley, and Jack Hughes, who makes me very anxious at times with some of his play. Pat at fullback was solid once again, even with a bit of an injury, Sean O’loughlin and Micky Mac, gave their usual top-gun performances, but for me Liam Farrell even at this early stage, must be putting down a bench-mark for Man of Steel. This young guy just gets better and better. Overall our young pack fell short in the battle with to theirs, but no sweat we will get better and we’ll be well fixed come September.

PS. my condolences to Shaun Wane and his family on the death of Shaun’s Father, God bless him.

I'm surprised that (actually maybe I'm not) Eddie and Stevo have missed the opportunity to say injury crisis in respect to Wigan's current line up.

Leeds played very, very well last night. Our young pack could not match their big, strong, experienced pack up front. Had we had all of our heavy hitters in, Prescott, Hansen & Eric it may have been a different story. I'm please with the performance, and can only mean good things for the rest of the season.

Anyone seen the missed tackle stats yet?
I just had the impression that we seemed to miss a helluva lot early doors, completely the opposite of earlier games this season.

Nonsense. Wigan lost against a fired up Leeds team who can beat any one on their day and we had 5/6 first team players out. I have a feeling Wigan will be minor premiers this year, even though we have lost a couple of games I think we will be the most consistent team. I'm just not sure how we will fair in the knockout games with our lack of experience.

Matty Smith isnt cutting it for me at the minute, I really like the lad and want him to succeed but after a good start his kicks are starting to just go straight down the oppositions neck (is this some kind of wigan kicking curse? we could sign Danny Brough and he would come here and be a kicker within 3 months) and IMO he is constantly making poor decisions in attack.

really? thought they were pretty crap all things considered,

I agree, if I was a Leeds fan, id be pretty dissapointed to only just beat the side we had out by 4 points.

We missed our senior pack men last night.
First half we could hadly get to the 40 mtr line. We were only in their half three times IIRC. What saved us was Matty Smith's kicking game. Long range, low trejectory amost always finding the ground. Watkins showed what he can do with the ball in hand but he had was turned around on a number of occasions.
We could really do with getting some lads back.

if my maths is correct you have us finishing 5th?
that;ll do me nicely

The same could be said for any team if the wrong result comes in a crunch game. No matter what, sh*t happens!

Not exactly, any win against you lot's always welcome. And besides, we weren't too far off our best, at least defensively. Rather than disappointed, I'm slightly uneasy. I thought Wigan were pretty good and with a full complement of players might actually pose more of a threat than us later in the season. I hadn't thought that until now but I saw enough last night in your performance to suggest you're in for some silverware - if you can keep Sam and keep your players injury-free.

3rd at best - 5th at worst. Really depends on how seriously Leeds/Stains take the regular season, and whether Huddersfield do their traditional 2nd half collapse.

I thought he did pretty well, considering he was kicking from deep in our own half most of the time.

This is the pertinent point. With 7 players out from what, pre-season, was likely to be our first choice line up including the bulk of our pack and the reigning man of steel, to lose to a near full-strength Leeds team in their own back yard by only 4 points should be giving confidence for the back end of the season. In the end it will, in all probability, come down to injuries, or lack of them! With Mossop, Prescott, Hanson and Luaki available that pack is a completely different proposition. Add Sam into the mix and you all but have a different team. That's not to say the young lads aren't doing us proud. However it's asking too much to expect them to beat all before them week after week. That's where experience is invaluable. Full strength we can bet anyone. What these last few weeks have proven is that, on our day, even understrength we are still among the best in the competition.

Good to see that some can see a bigger picture...

I feel much better about our chances of winning silverware now than I did in January. Take out any team's best attacker (Sam), both starting props (Prescott and Mossop) and one second rower (Hansen) and they'll struggle way more than we our still getting used to playing without Hock. We'll be well capable of beating any team once these lads are back from injury and the Green/Smith and Thornley/Richards combos have had some time to gel, not to mention the raft of new faces we have this season who are bound to improve as the season progresses. I'm just glad Wane's not throwing any half fit players out there (Richards excepting), we need everyone fit and in form at the business end of the season.