Be Mathers/Pryce/Roberts/Riddell....



Personally,
Lockers/Phelps
Rest of team
Coley

Tonight both teams were good defensively and both made a catalogue of errors (largely silly ones) when in attack. We manged to win because when Fielden, Feka and Riddell came on in the first half the two props managed to make headway (which hadn't been happening previously) whilst the team were more composed when attacking. We only used basic rugby but that was all that was needed as the team that cut out the errors would win. The errors crept back in in the final quarter resulting in a nervy finish. All in all the performance wasn't fantastic but it was better than against Huddersfield and we did enough to win. We will need to step up next week but we are more than capable of doing so.

Man of the Match for me would probably be Feka for the positive effect he had on the team's attacking and the momentum of the match. Phelps, Carmont, Hansen, Fielden and Richards were all solid too.

1. Cam
2. Eron
3. Phelps

The amount of times he's caught flat-footed in the defensive line is beyond a joke - every coach in Super League is onto it now. What game can you possibly be watching to give a player like this MOTM?!

As I said in my post we as a team were not great but did the basics for a spell that gave us enough points to hold on to win. We were going nowhere in attack until he came on along with Fielden. With those two we finally managed to hit the Cas defensive line at more than a standing start. He along with Fielden caused the momentum of the game to shift (we were getting hammered territorially and only silly errors had stopped Cas from leading at that point). Without the impact from Feka & Fielden we would have lost. Therefore I consider those two to be pivotal to the win (coupled with our defence). Feka was the better of the two in my opinion due to not making errors in possession. That is why I would give it to him.

Bizarre. he made no more impact than Prescott tonight and at the point the game looked a little nervy was walked round a couple of times leaving others to cover in defence. Whilst I don't like to denigrate what is just an opinion, far too much clout for me is given by happy clappy fans to players who barge the ball in 4/5 times to great fanfare whilst letting the rest of the team sort out the defence/attack and ultimately the result.

JTB

Prescott was his usual self doing neither an exceptional level in either attack or defence but solidly doing a bit of both. He is a sort of under the radar player who builds the platform for the team without being noticed (IMO). We were flat going forward prior to the prop interchanges and lost impetus when the starting pair were back on. I have been critical of Feka before on a number of occasions as he is a luxury player as you need someone to cover his poor defence so that he can be effective in attack (and this diminshes the attacking power of the man covering his defensive frailties). I too have mentioned how people are misled by a few barging runs and ignore that he causes others to have to defend more etc. However tonight we were not particularly under threat from the Cas attack so his defence was not the weakness it would normally prove to be and his impact was important in getting us on the front foot (seemed to me to help morale as well) from being under the cosh. One swallow does not make a summer though and I am not nominating him for MOS. I just think he did an important job tonight. You don't agree with me, it may be that nobody agrees with me but lets not take over the thread debating the rights and wrongs of my opinion.

Feka

Behave, total liability.

1 - Gleeson
2 - Phelps
3 - O'Loughlin

Roberts was my MOM, thought he was absolutely outstanding tonight, arguably his best game attacking-wise.

O'Loughlin had another great game, as did carmont and pat.

Apart from that, thought everyone was extremely average. Phelps was great going forwards but had a poor game defensively, and for those saying that if mathers had made those mistakes people would be after his head, mathers has never made the metres phelps does, nor the amount of try assists or attacking influence he brings.

phelps was for 65 mins excellent and for the last 15 mins made a few mistakes also letting cas back into game with their 2nd try which a dying game a bit closer than it should have been richards was good espcially the 80 yard drop out

Now then chief, I barely ever post on here but I'd just like to argue back against a few of your posts.

Just because you're Wigan doesn't guarantee "the good times" to return just like that. With the salary cap in place (sometimes

) and Overseas quota in place its begginning to make SL more of a level playing field and more competitive.
As for the abuse you took from Drunken Cas fans, all I can say to that is TOUGH. We brought what 3000ish tonight, there's gunna be the odd ****head. if 3000 came from Leeds Wire or as I'm sure you know, Saints, you'd get it. Myself, I study at Manchester and went via train last year to the JJB on my jack jones and was threatened to be shoved in the river....Bit rough because I'm always up for a laugh / banter with fellow fans, including bigger rival fans from Leeds etc. It's clear to see in your post that you're bitter yourself, bitter your team aint what they were, bitter your fans just turn up and accept mediocrity, bitter that at the moment Wigan aren't really going anywhere, bitter that the Classy Cas fans have more passion and loyalty in their voices then Wigan's? I don't know.
I don't wana cause a war or anything. The best team did win tonight, although nearly managed to mess it up!!!
Best of luck Hull KR next week.
Thanks for reading.

Unfortunately there are a few people around here with no other agenda but slagging off the team/coach/player of the week for no other reason than it's easy to do. This usually is on the basis that we should rack 60 points past the likes of Wakey, Cas, everyone else, etc... as that's what Wigan do



Some elements criticise for boring Rugby, but the ball was given a whole lot of air... which creates more handling errors, oh hang on, criticise for making errors and not playing a basic game, oh no, even though it's being thrown around, we're playing boring 5 drives and a kick and we're cr@p as we can't hold the ball... make you're mind up!

Very disrespectful to a dogged and determined Cas imho. There were a few errors in the game (funnily enough Wigan probably made fewer than in the glory days) but a hell of a lot of these errors were forced errors. Both defences were uncompromising, as you'd expect in playoff football, you rarely get a classic at this stage.

Personally I enjoyed it, I thought we looked composed in the whole, more importantly we looked keen and fresh. IMHO, I thought Hull KR and Hudds, much like we have in the past, looked like they are getting to the back end of a hard season, running out of troops and looking a little jaded, both could have done with the win and a week off, but that's how the league/play offs work.

Two tough games coming up, just need to get Monday - Friday out the way