Can't wait.

If you offered me a sub-20 point defeat now I'd willingly take it.

This season has been one of total and utter frustration. We've got the potential there to be a cracking side. If we got everyone fit, Leon playing well etc, we could have won something this year but just about everything that could possibly go against us does. Injuries, suspensions, video referee decisions etc.

It was always going to be tough this year, playing at Widnes and without KC, but it's been hellishly frustrating. So many little glimpses of positivity but this isn't our year. Roll on 2012. Over to you Eammon, get some signings made...

It'll be an interesting game for sure!

Saints are the type of team though who could turn it all around and actually beat Wire next week.

very true, here's hoping

Saints this year have 1 point out of 10 from games against Wigan, Warrington and Huddersfield so far.

I see no reason to suspect that trend will be bucked next week.

I'm sure the Saints of old would have done. But we're not what we used to be. The magic has gone for me. We're a decent team but no more. There is a big rebuilding effort to be done before we're in the hunt again.

I'm not sure why everyone is so shocked really, 4th is pretty much were I figured we would be on average this year, and thats as we are at the moment.

We got beat, probably a good chance of getting beat next week too, but the squad we have has plenty of young people playing and i've no problem with our position.

I wouldn't say many were shocked. Frustrated and disappointed is more where I feel. There is great potential in the team but they are so naive and lacking in ruthlessness and aggression. Man for man Wigan aren't much better than us, but they play with such a team spirit and aggression that we totally lack. I don't mind kids being kids and making mistakes, like Mackinson jumping past Roberts rather than trying to stop him, but it was a horrible showing.

We could absolutely blitz Warrington next week. It just depends on how embarrassed our players are by their collective performance tonight. We could have beaten Wigan tonight had we been able to hold on to the ball. Wigan are always available at some point during the second half. We started the comeback but kept dropping the ball. And mostly it is the senior players who are making the big cockups.

I'm not convinced they've got it in them at the moment. With Pryce back potentially, but Wire will attack us in defense just like Wigan did. If anything they're better at that than Wigan themselves.

We miss Scott Moore's aggression in attack. We miss Pryce's experience. We miss Wheeler's natural ability. We miss Wello's mojo of his season prior to the heel injury that took him off at the DW. He hasn't been the same since.

If Wello's mojo returns he will slip back into third halfback to help out our desperately inexperienced halves who will soon start to lose confidence unless our senior players start to man up. If that happens then we have a creative chance, although we need to pass to the right as well as the left. Most of all, though, we need our forwards to stop being either babies or lazy a r s e s because they let us down tonight. On top of all that, we need to work on our defence again, which is just not reliable. But I think that is partly a reflection of the attitude we are struggling with this season. We cave in. I don't like that and I've mentioned it before. It's not the attitude of a silverware winning side anyway. We actually looked a more determined side with the youngsters in it.

You didn't even go to the game did you?

Shameful.

Where do you get that idea from?

Read the post I quoted.

Roberts didn't play. You meant Richards.

Slow the PTB and disrupte Roby then you stop Saints. No plan B
No adaptation to the circumstances.

The top sides have got saints worked out. Mid table teams have to but
have not got the players to carry out the tactic.

In addition to turn the screw teams exploit Wellens via the kicking game.
It is just a rerun of the GF defeats again and again. We need a pacey dangerous
fullback. Wellens needs to be replaced as FB (been saying this for a couple of seasons
not just a kneejerk). Would be happy to have him in the backrow.

As a sidenote - How many times has Roby had the ball knocked out of
his hand by the opposition markers recently? Has the penny not dropped
with either Roby or the coaches.

Wire will have a field day.

I got Roberts and Richards mixed up. Hardly proof I wasn't there.

Most of the tripe you type proves you've never even been to a RL game in your life.

Do you not know why that is? I thought it was obvious. We have no experienced halfbacks and Wello has lost his mojo. The halves were shown to be inexperienced tonight because they were up against Grand Final winning halfbacks. Simmons plays off Roby because he is an experienced Grand Final player. We can't have adaptation because the halves aren't ready for that yet although Gaskell tried his best (Lomax only chirping in towards the end of the second half).


Of course they have. It's easy to work us out just now. That's why we need some experience.


Roby should hold on to the ball tighter. He is being targetted because he is the main man. We don't have a thinker on the field; the two thinkers we do have are both injured (Pryce and Wheeler).

Maybe it was just me but our forwards did not take the ball in with any real conviction tonight. Wigan were fierce in the tackle, but to be honest our forwards have to show more desire to make yards in the tackle. To be fair I have not seen this in the other games this season, but it could be that the Wigan forwards really intimidated our tonight.

I seemed to read a lot of our fans saying that they thought we had better forwards than them in the lead up to this game. Do they still think the same now ?

On tonights performance we look miles behind Wigan, and the only straw I can clutch at is the other two games this season which have both been very close. You also have to remember they will bring Hock and Fielden back in the next month and they will be even stronger in the pack.

It is going to take a monumental effort for us to something, but maybe we can get to the cup semi and avoid wigan/wire and give the fans a trip back to Wembley. Given the problems of this season, I think most fans would be happy with that

If it makes you feel better, I'm much more apprehensive about playing you next week now after having Wigan dominate you.

Saints need to do more than keep hold of the ball. Gaskell was pinpointed by Wigan to such an extent, it was painful to watch. Simmons needs to work out another way of integrating him in the defensive line without being so easily isolated.

I don't think I agree with you on much, but this I do. Againats the big teams this year we haven't really competed bar once on Good Friday. We got lucky at MM and the other 3 games we've been outplayed in every area. I think Wire will beat us next week.

I don't think we got lucky at MM. At MM we wanted to win. Wigan did exactly the same last night as they did at MM. They wobbled in the second half. That's when we started to score tries. But because we couldn't hold on to the ball, we fluffed most of our chances. From the East Stand there were three occasions when the line was ahead and we could have got there, but we dropped the ball when we weren't under any pressure.

But when Jammer makes his first decent tackle at 65 minutes, what can we expect? The forwards couldn't be bothered last night. They were still at the Exiles game. LMS wasn't in a game at all. He needs to take ball handling lessons.

Its clear for all to see that at present the league is split into 3 first rate teams Wigan, Huddersfield, Warrington.

Four second rate teams Saints, Leeds, Castleford & Catalans

The second rate teams are capable of causing the odd upset against the big three but on the whole are not good enough.
Catalans by the way are imo the best of the second raters, and are pretty close to being part of the first raters.

Then the dross, who are pretty much whipping boys