I'd limit the minutes of Thompson, Havard and Ellis and get plenty in to Byrne, Dupree and Mago but keep a full team. Mago really seems to benefit from long spells over the following weeks and with a week off next week, it would be handy to get 50/60 minutes in to him.

Weve got a 16 day gap hopefully. to our next game anyway so should select the best side and keep team consistentcy

Full strength, no messing around. Need to keep the momentum going and keep building combinations. They get a week off next week anyway.

Very arrogant from Salford. In some ways I can understand they are protecting against injuries and/or bans and they may well lose with a full strength team.

However its clear that they are expecting Leigh to beat us so they will still be at home. If we do beat Leigh then we will be at H to Salford and I would be very confident now with players back (unless we get more injuries or bans against Leigh)

It's also completely ruined tomorrrow nights game as a contest.

I don't think it's arrogant at all, I think they just acknowledge they have a small squad and they desperately need their best players fit, fresh and available for the play offs. Also, home advantage to Salford probably isn't quite as big as it would be for some clubs. If they play Leigh at home, it's likely as many, if not more Leigh fans would be in the ground.

I also saw a theory around the financial aspect and how gate receipts are split 3 ways in the play offs (both clubs and the RFL). If that is the case, Salford will financially be better off from going away to Saints and splitting a gate of 10,000, than they would be playing at home and splitting a 5,000 gate. If money is as tight as they like to let everyone know, then there may be a couple of reasons at play as to why a home play off isn't the be all and end all for them.

But what are the chances they would've beaten us anyway? We hardly ever lose at home and have basically a full team to pick from and the LLS to win.

I do think you would beat them fairly easily at your place. Their away form is pretty bad, whereas their home form is (I think) 2nd best in the league after ours. All it takes is a couple of bans/injuries to your key players this weekend though and it evens things up.

I really hope Leigh win and make the play offs, just for the quality of that opening week of play off games. Fixtures between Wire and Saints and Salford and Leigh look far better and far more competitive than Wire and Catalans and Saints and Salford. If it's the latter, I reckon Wire will put 40+ on Catalans and Saints will get over Salford reasonably comfortably.

I've been really down on us all season for obvious reasons however there is a part of me that thinks we can go to Warrington and win even if Leigh beat us this week. Obviously I'd rather play Salford at H but there were some green shoots in our win over Cas. Whilst they had nothing to play for it was good to see us much more expansive and whilst naturally clunky at times, the difference that Welsby, Percival and even Dodd made was marked. Clark got 20 mins or so and Walmsley took his oven gloves off and caught the ball this time.

Knowles is the big one, his line speed, aggression and metres made plus his linking with the spine does make us look a different side.

A packed out away end at Warrington with no injuries or bans this week would still give me hope.

However that said we do need to beat Leigh. Our away form has been poor and our record against the top 6 even more so. Do I think we are good enough to win the comp? No but there are still a lot of big game experienced players in this team so there's a chance we will make a good fist of it.

I do have a similar feeling re Saints. I can see Leigh winning tomorrow night and sending you to Wire, but you showed in the first 15 minutes in your last fixture against them that you can compete. It was a pretty decent start and I was thinking Saints may be back (the less said about the remaining 65 mins, the better ).

I think you're right to mention the big game aspect. I don't get the sense that Wire have too many players that you'd say raise their game in the big games. There were certainly a few who disappointed at Wembley, albeit that was just one game.

I think beating Wire, Wigan and Hull KR (for example) in consecutive weeks will be beyond Saints, but you'll obviously be a different proposition with some players back compared to where you have been for the last couple of months. I'd be a lot happier if our route to silverware doesn't involve playing Saints (unless it's in the final!).

SKY / RFL would have been loving blowing smoke up their own s this weekend on TV with Wigan v Salford (hoping Wigan lose so they can hype up Friday night for KR), but Salford likely to have stuck a spanner in the works there

however, they will still be saying how 1st - 7th are all still to play for with only Wigan guaranteed 1st or 2nd, KR 1st to 3rd, Wire 2nd or 3rd, and then Salford, Saints, Leigh and poss Catalan 4th - 6th, so they'll be hyping it up as best ever finish to a season. IN reality Wigan have been good enough to finish top (assuming we win), KR have had a good season, but then Wire through to Catalan have all be inconsistent, capable of winning on their day, but equally underperforming

I think most Wiganers still feel Saints are the biggest threat to us hopefully going on to win back to back due to their squad having big game experience, that KR, Wire, Salford and Leigh dont really have. As a Wiganer, i prefer us to play week in week out, as we've shown in the past that a week off doesnt always suit us, but we cant say that we are tired if we cant get past whoever we draw in the semi as we'll have had a relatively easy game tomorrow (assumption based on Salford team) and 2 weeks off to recover and train

I've said for weeks that there is no way I would rule out Saints. They just won't give anybody an easy play off game. If you play Salford at home, I feel you'll win and then likely come here and I can't lie, I would feel extremely nervous. There's no arrogance in saying we're in a better side but we know full well play off games are different and teams struggle to really open up and play their natural game and that brings Saints right in to it. It'll take a couple of off days and those play off nerves grabbing a couple of sides but I see no reason why Saints couldn't win it. The media seem to want to build a 2 horse race. That was between Warrington and HKR a few weeks ago and now it's between Wigan and HKR but I honestly think it's a really open race. Wigan are the favourites, no doubts about that but I think all of Wire, HKR and Saints could also win it. I don't see Salford, Leigh, Catalans etc having enough tbh.

There's no doubt in my mind we have a Wigan v Saints semi final coming up in a couple of weeks and the form of each team in the regular season will be redundant at that point.

I hate the lack of any tangible reward for finishing 1st or 2nd outside of home advantage. You can argue a week off does you more harm than good at times. When you finish in the top 2 you should get two chances to get to the final as we had with the old top 6 system. It would also extend the playoff series by a week.

And this has nothing to do with any Wigan bias - in 2018 Saints finished top - 6 points clear of Wigan and 15 points clear of Warrington. They lose one game against Warrington and are out which was farcical in my view.