On the performance tonight no, tonight i was paying my respect to a friend, but it is clear on the reports we were poor, and i do not need to see the game tonight to see the same criticism of the team that have been around for the last 2 years in games i have seen.

Unfortunately our two worst players tonight were our two youngsters.

Both Sam and Ainscough made really bad errors, but they will learn from them, and it was what we thought may happen (though not in the same game)

Whether they cost us the game is open to debate, but in the long term it won't do them any harm.

O'Loughlin - Not a captain. Needs the burden off his back. Not scoring enough tries in attack although outstanding in defence, especially from marker positions.

Hock - Quality at times but mentally lacks the edge to be "world class".

Riddell - No better or worse than Higham so far.

Roberts - Dissappointing but we still lack a good centre on his side.

Fielden - Too overpaid. Not worth a new contract.

Smith - Again mentally lacks the edge to be "world class". Defence woeful. Worse I've seen in a Wigan shirt in truth. He could be Barrettesque in attack but waste of time if you can't defend.

Bailey - Solid and reliable but never been seen as class to me despite his Aussie caps in 2003.

They are not bottom 7 standard though but we really need to start questioning the captaincy. Its not good enough and I'm rapidly losing patience. The leadership is none exsistent and in the three home defeats so far, leadership could easily have been the difference in us winning those games. Goal Kicking as well to be fair.

I said the same coming off the ground tonight, what will interest me most is the reaction to Noble of these performances - will they get a start against Saints or will they get dropped ? I know what should happen but am a little worried that only one will make the bench.

That's my point.

If all these players are the standard of what you're now saying they are then we wouldn't have signed/promoted them and everybody would have been up in arms when we did sign them.

Well I am sure I will be shouted down on this point, but yet again Lockers failed.

He is never in a million years a Captain.

I don't buy this "he leads by example" B.S. as he clearly does not.


And yes, this is where i disagree with Nobby, who seems to think the sun shines out of Lockers backside.


Frankly if Lockers had caught the ball in the first half, we would have won the game imo.

No I don't disagree but the lack of a captain makes it a fine line between winning and losing. The games we've lost (bar Leeds) have all been winnable and we could easily be looking at being 7 and 1 or 6 and 2ish. Ok some may blame the coach. I don't particularly (although I am losing patience). I don't look at individuals either, I look as a team and we are just not being directed around the park in any way shape of form. Our last tackles are absolute garbage and they are vital to success in Rugby League. Maybe that is the coaches fault, I'm not so sure but I've sympathy for Noble because they were not planning to lose Barrett for this season.

Which one was that? The spill over the line early on? Thought that was Hock!

So did I?

It was.

No the one later on where he knocked on before HT. He had 2 players either side.

Can't blame Nobby, it's Lenegan. No, f[ia[/ick it, we'll blame Lockers. Oh dear.

The bottom line we are not good enough or anywhere near.
Trophies are dreamland.
Our pack once again could not get over the top of another run of the mill team.
What we saw from both teams tonight was less than mediocre it was awful rugby. No wonder the crowd is down to 11000.
Our next League games are Saints at home and Catalan away.
Saints is a guaranteed good gate but how many will turn up to watch us play Celtic? Wigan fans expect better than this and unless better players are signed it won't get any better than this.
Ian Lenagan has a massive problem on his hands.
He buys into this mediocrity and I can't see where the club is going except in a downwards direction.
Top class players can demand top class money unless IL is to start getting out his cheque book then tonight's performance will be more regular than any of us would wish.
As for Brian Noble he can win trophies and repeatedly and that is because he had the players. Caisley made sure of it.
For us to win trophies IL has to be as determined as Caisley in providing his coach with the players he needs.

We were shocking tonight but still the players are all better than the level they are performing at imo.

We’ve had a settled-ish team for a few weeks now and they just don’t seem to be either clicking or improving week in week out. Look at the Quins game for example as proof of how we seemed to have gone backwards over recent weeks.

I do honestly think we need freshen up the whole coaching staff at Wigan and bring in a coach who is not only a motivator but also someone who can develop players into better ones that they already are.

I honestly don’t think there is one member of our backroom staff who I have faith in and think oh yeah once x gets to work on them we’ll see massive improvements like Anderson did with Roby, Graham, Gardner and Hargreaves or Smith and Mcleanan did with Smith, JJB, Sinfield or Ellis etc.

Lets not get into the trap of thinking that our players are now somewhat usless or crap cause they aren’t I’d still even after tonight take every single Wigan player bar B.Hodgson over the Hudds players. The difference was the Hudds players are playing better than the actually are where we are doing the complete opposite.

Still think tho with new prop, directional playing SH and a new creative right centre we will see massive improvements in our game.

lol. I'm working the opposite way.........