No we were not.
We had a great 15 minutes that won the game.

Were you watching a different game?! Our ball retention and penalty count was shocking, defence and individual brilliance won us that game it was a poor team performance for most of the night, yet we still won. As I said earlier, sign of a good team and something we have not done in a good while.

Hull, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and Saints all have a chance of winning SL this year imo.

Could go either way.

Mistakes, poor discipline and a poor kicking game coupled with an unwillingness to pass the ball out wide made tonights game a lot harder than it had to be.

The switching of Deacon and Tommy to 9 and 7 respectively, won us that game in the last 25, prior to that we were very poor around the ruck and in attack.

Still we won the game.

We were definitely poor at times - knock-ons, penalty count & some panic plays in the final 20. However, when we were good we were very good, and the most encouraging thing for me is that there is no way in the world we would have got back into that game in previous seasons.

Overall, it was an absolutely belting game, both sides have improved hugely, and Leeds/Saints should have a far harder task getting to the GF this year.

I don't want to get carried away, but tonight was always going to be a big test, and the sheer resilience/fitness/attitude of the team, coupled with some great creative play, shows just how much Maguire has achieved in a short space of time. Top marks so far!

Agreed this was the turning point for me, I was screaming for it all night. Tommy is never and will never be a top class 9, he may well be a bloody good 7 though.

Not too sure we played poorly???

We just didn't have the ball for basically the whole of the first half. The tackles we made and the amount of times we had to defend our line was crazy, the lads are bound to get tired and that is where the penalties creep in (although I thought Silverwood destoryed us in the first half). But like the saying goes (a game of two halves) when it was our turn to have the ball we hit them quick and hit them hard, where as they were dropping off tackles and started to get desperate we keeped composed and lasted till the end to get the win.

Turning point though the hit by Coley and Hansen (or J Tomkins) on Briers. If the brains not there the body can't work. Saying that I still think we would have come through for the win.

Dogged defence & a willingness to force the ball free + really scrappy penalties from Wigan,(lot's of extra work there for the tackle coach !) gave Wire the position to use the players that could score.Unwillingness to surrender & some individual play in the 2nd half gave Wigan the win.
Tough game that both sides can learn important lessons from.

Maguire on Roberts.
:4skmaq4c] "I'm well aware of the type of player he can be and he's only going to improve."'"

We did not have the ball or field position basically because we were so poor, poor errors, silly penalties and lack of direction from the halves.

For me the turning point had little to do with Briers and much more to do with Deacon moving to 9 and TL to 7.

I am as biased as the next fan but, we didn't have the ball because believe it or not Wire are a damn good side and if we didn't hang in there we would have been blown away in the first half like we was in the CC semi. But we have a new steal down or spine and I was nervous but still confident that when we had our turn of luck and possession we could out score them, and if you think it had little to do with Briers, then thats up to you mate. I just think that with him off they had to rely on a 1/2 fit Monaghan and a still fresh Myler .

Under Noble it would have gone from being 16-4 down at half time to a 30 odd points drubbing.

We did not have the ball in the first half because we hardly completed a set, it will be interesting to see the stats on that one when they are published.

We were very poor other than the first 10 mins and the last 25 IMO.

I find this critism of the team a little hard to take, yeah we gave away a couple of penalties ( some fair others not so), we have beaten Wire for the first time since 2003. We where proper steam rolled in the first half yet turned the game around when we had the chance.

I just don't get it, I thought it was two very good teams, one great match and for us a fantastic result. Yeah there are things to work on but there always are.

Enjoy the result FFS.

I do enjoy the result hence the optimistic tone of my original post I think we have a champion team on our hands, but that does not take away from the fact that for most of the game tonight we were our own worst enemy. Individual brilliance won us that game not a good team performance.

The effort in defence was immense and if you look at the stats I am sure without knowing the score if you had to pick a winner you would have said Wire would have won it comfortably, but the stats are not where a game is won thank god and while we did not play great, and lacked direction and control I am more than happy with the result and the direction this great club is moving.