I’ve just watched it there’s literally no evidence of head contact at all. There was body contact which bumped Thompson off and the heads are close but on the replay they show, there’s no definitive contact.

Thats not to say that another angle doesn’t show it. But on what SKY showed, Lees has no case to answer.

Best team won. Our discipline was poor and too many errors.
Not seen the Byrne incident again but at the time I thought the tackle was fine.
I thought that O’Neil had a good game but I couldn’t understand why Leeming played so few minutes.
I’m mystified why we pick a forward on the bench then he doesn’t get any game time. If I was Nsemba I’d be livid. I wouldn’t give a shiny shoite about other players or how finely balanced the game was. If I’m on the bench I’d expect no I’d demand minutes on the pitch. Time to step up Junior.
Our weaknesses so far this season is a backrow that is almost non existent from an attacking point of view and we are particularly weak in defending high balls in our defensive corners.
Our passing doesn’t have that crispness from last year but hopefully will improve over the next few months.
I’m normally distraught after a loss to Saints but today I’m quite calm about it.
Havard, Walters and Cooper will add a lot of size and power when they return which we will need to really take on the Saints pack. I thought that Thompson did ok today but he was taking on the Saints pack almost alone at times.
I want us to beat Cas and Saints to beat Wire in the CC then be drawn together in the SF. Let’s see how that one goes.
Field was poor despite his early tackle on Dodds to avoid a first half try for Saints. Not sure what’s up with him but attacking wise he’s almost anonymous at the moment and his handling today was particularly poor.
Unsure on Saints possession percentage but it must have been huge particularly in the first half. The current Saints are anything but entertainers and if we can cut out the errors and poor discipline I’m pretty confident that we turn the tables next time when we meet.
A disappointing performance but I expect the players and coaching team will turn it around.
I anticipate Byrne and Dupree to miss the Leyth game which will probably lead to another defeat but when we have our long term injured players back i still think that we will be competing for all the silverware.

‘It’s direct contact with the head, there are no mitigating factors. It’s a red card.’

Changes the game at that point.

Aye, nowt in it.

Felt it was a weird game today. I thought we looked comfortable for most of the day and the game was there for the taking but you can’t give so many penalties away and make so many errors and expect to come through. I respect Saints massively and always felt beating them to any trophy this season will be a challenge (as it will be the other way) but I probably feel more confident of doing that after today. We’ve got loads of improvement in us.

Not watched it back.

Think saints were the better side on the 80 mins.

Felt like we were well on top just before the red card, they couldn’t handle us at the time, the away end was going wild.

Both teams are the best in the league by a mile.

I wasn’t convinced on Luke Thompson but by god he was immense today.

I also wouldn’t swap Brad O’Neill for anyone in SL

Thompson was absolutely sensational I thought, in fact it’s only fair him and Walmsley aren’t at the same club anymore because both were scary good. I agree on O’Neill, I’m sick of him not getting the praise he deserves now. He should be Englands hooker for my money. He absolutely walloped any Saints player that went near him. He is a special talent.

Nsemba should have been on the minute we scored, gone for the jugular, we were crying out for an offload game to break them down

Agree with this. More confident after yesterday that we'll add to our silverware this season.

Small moments in the game went their way; the Lees tackle not being picked up, then a tackle later Dupree being sin binned. The video ref recommending a yellow, but Kendall choosing red on Byrne. And don't get me started on the penalties and six agains in the first 40.

The above coupled with we're way off at the moment, makes me optimistic. I felt similar after the Good Friday derby at their place in 2022; we competed well but they were too strong on the day. A few weeks later we turned them over to get to Tottenham.

As a neutral watching the game and wishing my shower played with that much intensity.Was some absolute cracking tackles.The got the Dupree one right as Lees had just slipped and he caught him on the chest then rode up so yellow fair….was a couple by Sts that was debateable and the Byrne one was a red
under the new guidlines.All teams have had less tackles punished than Byrnes.Was Field carrying a knock as he just didnt look right and not his usual zip.

I havent watched the game back but I thought Field was pretty annoymous for most of it and made some uncharacteristic errors. Just didnt seem to have his mind on the game

It was a tough game for any of the key attacking players on either side to make an impact to be fair to Field. I saw a Saints fan on Twitter saying Field and French went missing but did Welsby and Lomax do anymore? I thought it was as quiet as I’ve seen Welsby against us. I thought Dodd was far better than he’s been in the last year or two and it’s good to see him getting his form and confidence together.

Ultimately for Wigan we can’t look past the errors and discipline issues. We sort them out the next time we play Saints and it’s a different result. That took an immense defensive effort from Saints and some key calls to scrape home. If I was looking at how both sides can improve next time, I think there’s far more in Wigan than Saints based on that, so to be ahead with 12 men and 8 minutes left gives me plenty of cause for optimism.

So as it stands we have lost 1 game with a game in hand,we are GF winners,LLS winners,WCC winners.
Saints,lost 1 game,no games in hand,nothing in the Trophy Cupboard.

Nothing to worry as we can get better as the season goes on,looks like Saints/Wigan combo for the trophies this year unless a upset occurs (you never know).
Great game,over now next onto Leigh another full house as the champions turn up.
Tough game at Leigh and Wigan will need to get over the defeat to our loved ones quickly and get switched on for this.

Curious what makes you think there’s more improvement left in you than us? Our attack didn’t look the best, but we made more chances than you did and even the one chance you made was just a moment of magic from an individual. As a unit I thought you never looked like scoring. We didn’t either really, but we did make a couple of chances and on another day could have scored a few. I’d put the lack of chances down to defence from both sides than attacks being that bad. You’ve got a few forwards to come back, likewise we were without Bell who’s probably been our best attacking player this year, and Paasi who is a wrecking ball. Blake too who whilst hasn’t been great, has looked to be improving and could grow as the year goes on. He’s certainly got the attributes to improve if his attitude is right. I can see plenty of improvement to come for both teams.

If you’re waiting for our defence to soften I wouldn’t hold your breath! We have conceded an average of 7 points per game over the 6 games, and almost half of the points we conceded have been when we were down to 12. It’s always going to take something special to open us up despite everybody thinking Hurrell and co are liabilities. In reality it doesn’t really happen. Thought we dealt with whatever you threw really comfortably, marked the likes of Field out of the game, didn’t allow Smith to do anything either and we also did a good job on French, the difference being he’s just a special player who can conjure something like he did.

I totally agree on the errors and discipline points. We didn’t help ourselves and despite some great defending eventually something had to give. I think that we can play a lot better but not sure how much more Saints can offer from an attacking point of view.
I’m a fan of Lomax but it’s obvious to see that his best days are behind him. He will show the odd glimpse of his past but they will be few and far between. I think that this applies to Farrell these days too. We need Farrell for his brilliant defence but his attacking threat is almost non existent these days.
Still scratching my head on the low minutes of Leeming and Mago and for the life of me just don’t understand why Nsemba was on the bench if we were not going to play him. It will be interesting to see how those 3 go against Leyth.