In the first half I was scared to death that we were going to lose that match because of the missed kicks. It could cost us dearly this season and could ultimately be the difference between winning silverware and not.

With regards to Josh it is not just that he misses it is the fact that he never looks confident kicking and he doesnt seem to have a set technique. All the top kickers kick in exactly the same way time and again, week in week out. Josh hits the ball completely different each time and didnt strike any of last nights kicks cleanly. If he kicked with a set technique, hit them clean and they had just went wide then fair enough but he didnt and its the way he missed, rather than the misses themselves, that trouble me from a kicking point of view going forward.

This is our biggest problem at the moment with Pat being out, which says a lot about how good our form is at present. It does need addressing though, as i a tight game which we will have sooner or later it could cost us. It's amazing how you just take it for granted when Pat is kicking.

I would get Josh and Sam to practice like mad, but my gut feel says that I reckon Sam would be more of a better bet.

Frano Botica was an excellent goal kicker when he came to wigan, in fact I think he was signed originally because of this. He definitely got even better whilst at Wigan and became almost 100% reliable. We surely do not have to get any one else in to give kicking instruction when we have one of the best on staff in Paul Deacon

Conditions were bad last night. I'm not too worried.

The weird thing is, I would back Josh to kick one from the Touchline but I would never back Sam to do that, but i think Sam is the more consistent and safer kicker if that makes sense? Maybe we should just alternate and have Josh kick the hard ones and Sam kick the easier ones which Josh seems to consistently miss

They should have an X- factor type audition at training , get the whole squad to try and see if we have a couple of hidden gems.

I wonder about Mickey Mac, seem accurate on the short kick game?

We've gone from Pat, deacs, Amos, piggy to Pat

am i missing something or have we not had one of the most prolific kickers in the SL era in our squad for two years and is now a coach in Paul Deacon?

I am not quite sure what he does at Wigan but it should now be dedicated to getting Sam and Josh up to speed because as others have said Pat is injury prone at the moment.

im not suprised josh is missing kicks have you seen how high the ball is off the ground on that kicking tee. also we do keep scoring in the corners.

Let's hope that Pat recovers for the crunch part of the season as then we have one of he best kickers in the world.
We then need to make sure we use the salary cap wisely in the summer and sign a top half back who can kick goals as well.

Though he could kick goals he wasn't a regular goal kicker and he was signed as a stand off (still took him several years to play 6 with us). John Monie wanted Phil Blake and was a bit bemused when Uncle Mo went for Botica - an NZ RU player on the fringes of the All Blacks. Botica himself decided to improve his goal kicking because he said himself he wasn't sure how else he would get into the team! He made himself indispensable so despite the fact he could not displace the current stand off he was played on the wing for several seasons.

As to out current situation someone said they don't see Sam kicking goals form the touchline. Neither do I so how about sharing the kicking duties?

We did this years ago when in the 1985 Wigan v Hull cup final Henderson Gill kicked goals from one side of the pitch and David Stephenson (I think) from the other. Worked a treat.

Josh certainly struggles from one side of the pitch and can fluff what look easy kicks from almost directly in front so I would just get the best man for the job kicking for each kick.

Correct !

Did not realise how bad conditions were until we walked back to the car so I don't think we are in panic mode re goal kicking, just get the ball to Lima and keep scoring under the posts.
By the way Josh superb pick up for that try last night, keep going.

Phil Gould told the story on TV about how Ivan Cleary improved his kicking when he was at the Roosters. Instead of just going out and kicking 35 goals at training. Only kick 20, but you have to kick 20 in a row. Apparently his percentage rocketed up.

Josh used to slot them in from all over the pitch. I remember him kicking at Hudds last year and at Widnes earlier this year he did the same, apart from the last kick from a penalty which could have won us the game. Ever since then, he has been wayward.

Yeah, the Saints may not be a big problem for us in regard of goal kicking, for as long as Rush keeps Foster in the dog-house, (best place for him) Lomax is no better than Charnley, or The Tomahawk in regards bagging the 2s but things could be different when it comes to Warrington and Hodgson, and Leeds and Sinfield. Though it would be nice to think our rich-vein of tries could see us through, this may not be the case in every game, no one can be that good, or that lucky.. Or can we?.

Just look at our rivals Wire.Huddersfield.Catalan,leeds and saints all have 2 or 3 kickers for back up seems our player recruitment have over looked a place kicker for when Pat got injured even in Grand Final in 2010 we missed some sitters in front of the posts but didnt cost us but with 3 hard games coming up it might.