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Not much more I can add that the scoreline doesn't
tell you. Brett Dallas (2) and Kevin Brown scored but pretty much
we were sh*te.
Last week officials from the club came out the blocks like Linford
Christie to tell us how we had "turned the corner" after our cup win.
I await the reaction to that shambles of a
performance.
No Excuses! Injuries are no excuse for that performance!
Like my Drama teacher said to me once - "I've seen
more fizz in a bottle of milk". Until the club
admits to itself that they are in a relegation battle we won't be
able to move forward. Well we sunk to new depths as our fellow strugglers Wakefield made
sure we remained bottom of the table ahead of the derby with
Saints next Friday
First-half tries from Michael Korkidas, Jamie Rooney, Colum
Halpenny, Jon Whittle and Jason Demetriou had given us a right
kick in the teeth first half. We couldn't really get any worse
after the break and the Wigan response from Brett
Dallas (2) and Kevin Brown was scant consolation in the face of
the one-way traffic early doors.
Second-row David Solomona, who this week turned down a move to
Wigan opponents, returned after a two-match absence for Wakefield
with a rib injury, while Ben Jeffries was passed fit at scrum
half.
The absences of Wayne Godwin (hip), Paul Prescott (eye) and
Bryan Fletcher (suspension) meant Jordan James, a signing from
Swinton got a debut on the bench.
The home side got off to the best possible start when Pat
Richards dropped the ball in Wigan's first set of six and Korkidas
crashed over from Solomona's neat short ball.
It was the first of several dreadful handling errors from the
Australian import, filling in at full-back, who looked so
impressive in winning the NRL title with Wests Tigers last term
but who has struggled to adapt to Super League so far.
The Wildcats added a second try on seven minutes, when Olivier
Elima broke through some poor tackling and found Rooney on his
inside, with Rooney's second goal opening up a 12-0 lead.
Two minutes later it was 18-0 as Korkidas this time made the
easy break for Halpenny to back up and score, with Rooney again on
target with the boot.
18-0 down after ten minutes, this was embarrassing. "At least
we might get St Helens off the record books" was one remark from a
Wigan fan.
We offered absolutely nothing in attack and Wakefield were in again after 18 minutes, Ned Catic
brushing off more woeful tackling to offload to former Warrior
Whittle to cross in the corner, Rooney's touchline conversion
adding salt to Wigan wounds.
After 26 minutes came a passage of play that summed up our
season perfectly - the home side fumbled on Wigan's 20 metre line,
and Mark Calderwood fly-kicked the ball ahead three times only to
touch down inches over the Wakefield dead-ball line.
To make matters worse the speedy winger injured his hamstring
in the process which, despite him trying to run it off, forced him
from the field shortly after.
Rooney extended Wakefield's lead to 26-0 with a penalty bang in
front after Jeffries was obstructed chasing his own kick, before
we finally got something to cheer.
Mick Higham made the break, handed onto Sean O'Loughlin, who
put Dallas over for a try under the posts that Richards quickly
converted.
The start of another come back? Nope it was a false start as
Jason Demetriou added Wakefield's fifth try just
before the break which Rooney again converted for a 32-6 advantage
which certainly did not flatter the home side.
The second half got off to a lively start with new signing
James going high on Korkidas and then another altercation
involving Higham threatening to get out of hand as tempers became
heated.
Rooney added a penalty for the second incident to make it 34-6,
before the Warriors notched their second try on 52 minutes.
Danny Orr's kick was fumbled horribly by Austin Buchanan into
the path of Dallas, who got downward pressure onto the ball over
the line, although Danny Tickle missed the difficult kick.
Tickle suffered more misfortune on the hour mark as he dropped
the ball on halfway and Sam Obst had too much pace for the
covering defence, with Rooney's eighth goal bringing up the
40-point mark.
Brown pulled another try back for Wigan after 66 minutes, but
Tickle's conversion bounced back off the post to compound our
misery. The rain also began to fall heavily in the final ten
minutes which was ironic as Wigan had been p*ssing in the wind all
night.
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