Burgess, Bibby and the two youngsters to miss out for me. Good experience for the two young lads to be around the first team squad though. Hopefully we’ll be able to get both of those a game at some point though but Friday doesn’t look the time.

Salford will be fired up for this and will want to get one over Hastings.

I can't see him leaving Bibby out against his former club (even though he did with Clark against Cas). I agree Hank should be in after Bibby's performance on Sunday. The number of times he shot out of the line in defence leaving Marshall exposed was ridiculous. Once, maybe, but learn from your mistakes after that. To keep repeating the same error is not good enough. What is it they say about the definition of madness?

Away from home we shall have to watch the disciplinary aspect as we will probably end up the wrong side of the pen count. We have Child in charge so will have to be careful.

Hopefully Lam will give Smith a start and his kicking game can put us well into Salford's half when they start their sets.
Keep them in their half and under pressure which hopefully can allow us to get ahead and stay there.

Common sense prevails !

Are the Salford supporters on the terracing being moved to the large main stand?

Farrell and Hardaker likely to miss out tomorrow. Hope they’re both ok for next week if they don’t play.

Both 50/50 according to Lam. I think we can cope without Hardaker but Farrell would be a loss, with a lack of recognised cover.

If they both miss out we’re probably looking at something along the lines of-

French
Manfredi Hankinson Bibby Marshall
Leuluai Hastings
Bullock Powell Byrne
Isa Smithies Havard

G Burgess Clark McDonnell Smith

Burgess centre, Hank in 2nd row?

I know you mean it in terms of having cover but I think we'd very much miss Hardaker. He brings an enthusiasm to the team that is hard to replicate and certainly isn't found in either Hank or Bibby. He's turned out to be a terrific team player which wasn't something I was particularly expecting from him when he signed. Great defensively and does a lot of work coming out if our own half too. Fast becoming integral to this Wigan team

I just mean from a natural cover perspective in saying the Farrell absence would be more concerning. Fully agree with what you’re saying on Hardaker. In fairness to Faz though, we wouldn’t just miss him because of a lack of cover. He’s been on fire at the start of this season and is probably the best second rower in the league.

Yes yes yes! Fully agree!

Farrell plays, Hardaker doesn’t.

I’m happy with that team to be honest. We should be coming away with a win IMO though I do expect it’ll be a tough game