OK, nowhere near perfect, but a lot more positives than negatives, I thought, especially with so many players out, and so soon after the Brisbane game, the tiredness from that was mainly what caused our letting them back into the game, IMO. Impressed with Tierney, Gildart (of course) and Gelling despite some of his usual brainfarts. Always knew Gildart was good in attack (and both tries took some scoring), but his defence impressed as well, especially while playing out of position.

Still need a hooker though; although Powell did what seemed like a long stint, and didn't do a lot wrong, he didn't really look dangerous and wasn't really organising much in attack.

Salford are a decent looking side, though, they'll upset a few of the "bigger" clubs this season, I reckon.

Happy with three from three though, despite not playing that well in any of them, it's the results that count at this stage.

The fact that we aren't a very clever side is almost as big a problem as the fact that we lack stars.

There are no killers on the field for Wigan, no game-breakers, no X-factor players. But on top of that, we consistently play dumb football.

One of the problems with players like Gelling, and we have too many of that ilk, is that he's a 50/50 kind of guy. He does some good things but makes at least as many mistakes (often very silly ones). You don't have to be a genius to work out that this isn't going to win you too many matches.

I'll be honest, we've won six points out of six so far - and I'm not sure how we've managed it.

It was a real arm wrestle that could've gone either way under some very poor reffing decisions against both sides.
Although I couldn't see the last try being at the other end lots of people saying it was a blatant knock on, I felt a share of the spoils would've been a fair result.

Teirney had a very good game, I would've had him ahead of Lockers.

Just watched the tries on Wigan tv and I might be biased, but there wasn't a knock on for me. In fact it was a much better play the ball than salfords for their last try. I still want to see the Manfredi try that was chalked off because I was sitting in line with the kick and it didn't seem offside to me at the time (again I'm happy to be proven wrong).

Either way we got the win. We are 3 for 3 and played poorly in all 3 games really. It's a good thing in one respect that we still find a way to win. But it will be very hard to beat hull fc at the kc without improving.

After watching the highlights, the manner at which the ball leaves Tautai's grasp is clearly hands in at the PTB. Look at the speed and direction it rolls and the Salford players at the ruck didn't seem too concerned that it was a knock on.

We're getting wins on the board and we have played some teams who should be up there (Hudds, Cats and Salford) come September/October. It was evident that the players were gassed after 60 minutes and I'm not surprised after last week. The referee was terrible for both sides, some very questionable calls. It is not often both sets of players and fans get so irritated by the ref and IIRC isn't this the same referee who had a mare at Leigh v London (something like 30 penalties). The Manfredi no try was a shocker, he was onside by a mile and how he missed Tautai's knock on before the match winner is beyond me. Also The play the ball before Salford's last try was terrible and also should have been disallowed IMO, so swings and roundabouts but a ref horror show.

We have 5 of our key players out and get we're 3 from 3. A very tough game at Hull next week and would t be surprised if our injuries and poor play catch up with us.

A lot of people agree that poor game management or not playing smart is a huge problem. If we're honest, we had the same problem through most of last season. As Cruncher says above, you can play unstructured if you have a few game breakers in your side - but given the team we have out at the moment, we need stronger structure, more discipline and a lot more guile.

Given this has been a problem for so long, why haven't we sorted it out? Is down to how they're being coached? Since Maguire left, we've gone from a team who played conservatively and perhaps even a bit robotically to a team of chancers with ball in hand. Or are they being coached to play to a rigid structure, which seems to go out of the window when they take to the field. In that case, you have to question the on-field leadership, traditionally you rely on your halves for game management or senior players - but there isn't much sign of that.

Officials were shoite (for both teams) and greatly contributed to what was a dire game.

We didn't play very well (except for that massive defensive stint end of 1st half, start of 2nd), and against good (dare I say quality??) opposition, and we ground out a win.
Some good individual performances to boot, and I don't think anyone had a stinker.

That's a good sign, and we will only improve as
a) players return, and
b) the rustiness wears off.

That's different to the start of last season, where we also played poorly in games, but lost.

Need to do a lot of hard work on our offensive game though.

All in all, I'm reasonably happy.

That was the idiot touch judge's call. The one with the ball spot.

Out of curiosity, how many of the controversial decisions did Sky show highlights of?
I believe the Tautai 'knock on' was (and probably flogged to death), but did they show the Manfredi 'no try'? That one looked good to me!

I was in line with the kick it was Farrell that was offside, the ref shouts at him to get back, he was in front of O'Loughlin when he kicked ahead.

Quote: tedglen "Out of curiosity, how many of the controversial decisions did Sky show highlights of? I believe the Tautai 'knock on' was (and probably flogged to death), but did they show the Manfredi 'no try'? That one looked good to me!'" Just these. Pause it at the Tautai ptb and you can clearly see the Salford hand come through. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12215 Also have a look at Salfords "ptb" for their third try.

Quote: tedglen "Out of curiosity, how many of the controversial decisions did Sky show highlights of? I believe the Tautai 'knock on' was (and probably flogged to death), but did they show the Manfredi 'no try'? That one looked good to me!'" Just these. Pause it at the Tautai ptb and you can clearly see the Salford hand come through. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12215 Also have a look at Salfords "ptb" for their third try.

Stokes was bad for both teams, probably one of the worst referring performances I can remember.

I didn't think there was much between the two teams, Wigan made full use of their breaks whereas Salford failed to capitalise on any of them. I thought a draw would have been a fair result, but it wasn't to be. Whilst feeling disappointed walking out of the stadium, it was nice to see us finally competing away from home against one of the 'bigger' clubs.

Salford will be no mugs this year, thats's for sure.