We struggled to put away a Championship side who had lost one of their leaders in the warm up in Wilkin and lost one of their halves a few minutes into the game in Cunningham. They lost a player to concussion and 1 to the sin bin and that’s how we made the score look respectable. A win is a win but it’s 2019 all over again, the minute we come up against a top team in a big game we will get turned over. And don’t quote the Warrington game, we were lucky and they were down to 11 men.

We have a very talented squad but this team, you can spot it a mile off, we look like a poorly coached side. As if they’re taking to the field not really knowing what the game plan is, or without one.

The only positives from Lam are he’s put Hastings back with Farrell and Bibby, also he gave Bullock and Clarke a chance and both did well.

Oh, and Burgess looks like he’s not enjoying being on that pitch, I’m sick of seeing his sulking face, he needs dropping.

Also, Lam out.

Thought Wigan looked really scratchy again and relied heaily on their (excellent) defence in the first half.

A weakened Toronto tired in the second half as expected. Maybe not as doom and gloom as the OP suggests but I've not seen much to suggest Lam is the man for the job. All smells a bit Keiron Cunningham to me.

It was a real mixed bag last night. For long periods it was bring predictable rugby. At other times you saw glimpses of class. Hastings provided 3 assists, French scoring 2 and setting up another from the quick tap, Bullock looked good, Smith showd some good signs. We just need to see improvement each week, which shouldn't he hard as we have not been good for more than a few short periods over the 3 games so far.

Thought Smith and Farrell were Wigan's best. Bullock was good too but not very difficult to improve on those starting props - Clubb a complete waste of space and Partington is powder-puff in the carry, no resistance to contact at all. Far too soon for him to be starting games.

Toronto running out of men turned the game, they weren't exactly worn down by Wigan. Early days, both teams will improve but got to worry about Toronto's depth.

That game should have been 30-0 at half time, Lam is out of his depth.

French is pure class attack wise, I’ll go against the grain and say French to 6 and Hardaker back to 1 when Gildart is fit for our strongest 13.

I think there where some good signs in the second half of what we can be capable of when everything gels but the first half was pretty garbage. I think as soon as Manfredi is back he has to come in and Burgess be dropped. Yes, he scored but his application at the moment is abysmal

Huge test coming up next week v Hull and if we play the same I can’t see anything other than a loss. Lam is well out of his depth for me and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he feels very Keiron Cunningham.

Yes there were some positive signs but for the most part we were boring, predictable and frustrating to watch.

I’d say our strongest side is :

1 - Hardaker
2 - Manfredi
3 - Gildart
4 - Bibby
5 - Marshall
6 - French
7 - Hastings
8 - Flower
9 - Leuluai
10 - Bullock
11 - Farrell
12 - Greenwood
13 - Lockers

14 - Smithies
15 - Burgess
16 - Byrne
17 - Isa

Slightly different for me and in fact I’ll go for 2 sides I think are our strongest (strange as that sounds)

1. Zak - French
2. Manfredi
3. Gilly
4. Bibby - Zak
5. Marshall
6. French - Smith
7. Jax
8. Burgess
9. Powell
10. Bullock
11. Smithies
12. Partington - Faz
13. Faz - Lockers

14. Flower
15. Isa
16. Havard - Bryne
17. Smith - Bibby - Greenwood

Phil Wilkinson made a good point on his Wigan Today article. It was March 31st when Wigan had 4pts on the table last year.

i got a new phone yesterday, got it out the box and had it on me as i went to a meeting straight after lunch, while i was in there it started making some notification noises, needing updates and stuff, i hurriedly farted about as the bosses were looking at me, trying to put it on silent.

Couple of minutes later it started emitting:

'Don't call me shirley, dont call me shirley'

I got it out of my pocket, turns out i'd put it on Airplane mode.





Carry on

Manfredi, George Burgess, Flower and Powell could be in contention next week