Wigan flattered to deceive.
The effort and passion were there, but they were playing a team that had just been in a real tough match at Headingley and who were naturally jaded.

Lets see how Wigan get on at Catalans, and the Magic weekend against Saints

Creatively Wigan were ordinary. They dominated possession and territory but couldnt do anything with it.
On the few occasions Saints were able to get into Wigans half we always looked like we were going to score.

What summed it up for me was that whenever Wigan took the lead, Saints had enough in the tank to raise their game a notch, go down the field and score.

Lets face it this was there cup final, they had to put everything into this match. They did, and came out with the wooden spoon.

Stop giving the game away la. We all saw how potentially jaded Saints mimicked the gameplay untill the sixty mark untill we could use the" we could twist the fake lack of energy to lull the enemy into a false sense of security in order to win a game on a we told you so styl-ee see if we dont but guess if you can spot the difference betweeen us running out of steam or us pretending we did but not really kind of or did we but it worked cause we scored more tries than you styl-ee" Is that a relevant Potter quote ah who knows type speech?

So says Hamball courtesy of Brian Cant and Floella Benjamen on behalf of Play School

Wigan threw everything at us and with the posession and territorial advantage they had, for us to only concede 2 tries is an outstanding defensive performance.

Compared to the Leeds game we looked out of sorts in attack, but I always thought if we were in touch when Kieron came back on we would go on to win.

It's still 12 points, which is close.

The difference between Champion teams like St Helens, and teams like WIgan is that we know when to up the tempo and when to decrease the tempo. When we went behind I wasnt worried because I knew we would still win. Wigan to their credit threw everything at us, and we absorbed it and then kicked on when we needed to. There is no point playing the whole game at such a high intensity, after that bruising encounter against Leeds. A good coach will recognise when to up the intenisty.

4 players for Wigan stood out. Feka, Ainscough, Tomkins and Hock. Feka to his credit put a lot of work in and on that performance, looks a much fitter player than he did last season. Ainscough was everywhere and I am hoping he carries on his progression and makes a superb international winger. Hock is a wigan lad and ran himself into the ground for wigan, he is so devastating down the channells, but luckily for us, we have superb tacklers. Against another team he would have devasted them. Then there was Tomkins. I can see why the wigan fans rave over him. He is going to be something special.

Overall, chuffed with that. Wigan didnt just roll over for us like they used to. They just need to start getting themselves up for the hudds, cas, wakeys of SL and they will be there or thereabouts come the business end of the season.

Wigan didn`t deserve to win. They didn`t take their chances against a Saints team that made many errors in the first half, and it is the worst display I have seen from Saints so far.

Arent the pies easily pleased these days.



3 wins from 9 including one win against a promoted team and the gifted win at Harlequins.

It wasnt a good game last night, We looked jaded( and who can blame us), didnt really fire in attack, and I cant remember the last time we lost the ball so much.

Despite this we showed how top sides win.

Defensively we put in a good performance against a team that lets face it has very little in the way of attacking ideas and took our chances well.

All this "the derby is back" love in is making me puke.

Despite what many wigan fans hope and pray - we are rebuilding they are STILL going backwards.

Cant wait for murrayfield

I think the Leeds game took a lot out of us, I hope they get rested up and fully fit for the Hull game.
Wigan will have burned themselves out last night and will really struggle in Catalans on Monday.
I'm sure we'll paste Wigan at Murrayfield.

Agree with a lot of what's been said. The Pies played with a lot of heart and guts. We made too many uncharacteristic errors and while Wigan had loads of possession and good position, they failed to capitalise in the way of points.

The King saved us late on. God Save the King.

If the Goonies "were Fantastic", what, pray rell, were the Saints. We won



And please don't say lucky or that we cheated

Assessment of the performances is relative for both sets of fans, it was a good performance from Wigan given what we have seen thus far.

Saints looked jaded and out of sorts and Wigan rattled you early doors i have not seen the stats but i think if you took them at face value you would assume Wigan won the game, what Wigan did not have was composure and class at the right times Saints did and took there chances well to win the game, in what was a very enjoyable game.

That's about as accurate as it gets. They played well but they should do at home against the league's glamour club. If you can't raise your game for such a visit you shouldn't even be in the competition. Huddersfield, Hull KR and Castleford wouldn't have spared us if they'd played us yesterday. They need to improve their execution significantly before becoming a contender this year.

Bingo.

Saints were poor for 75 minutes of the game and Wigan did their best and still lost. Everytime we had to score we lifted slightly and strolled in, had we gone all out I suspect it could have been a massacre.

Nah. They were defending too well.

It did seem that saints just did enough, as if we were saving something for monday

Are you some sort of spin doctor?

Your game versus Leeds ended over 96 hours (i.e. 4 days) before the game kicked off last night, did it not?

Surely, 2 tries would equate to 8 points, ergo, 2 scores would be beyond your score, and not "within 2 scores".

Must try harder.

He did say within two scores - so he is right. ONE try ONE conversion and ONE drop goal.

Played moderately and won - that'll do nicely thank you. We've just had two huge games v Leeds, won both and then to still have enough in the tank to beat Wigan is a tremedous achievement

A Noble trait i*m afraid.

DNT TALK CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP idiot

This really is just the complete turnaround of Saints and Wigan in their hey day. We would play out of our skin, only to lose narrowly, but would convince ourselves that glory was only just round the corner. We'd make mediocre signigs that were going to bring the good times back. In actual fact, the gulf in class was enormous. And for all the tight games that "almost" won, we were light years behind them. In the end, it took their bankruptcy, and our world class signings of Newlove and Scully,, and the emergence of Cunningham and Long for things to change. Novelty signings like Gleeson were what Saints would have done in the dark days, keep the fans happy for a few weeks. But in the end, it is simply patching over the cracks of a woeful squad, with a woeful coach, and a woeful chairman. Oh, and no ground. Can't see Wigan challenging for anything for years to come. Welcome the the DW dark ages.

Very good post

Fair assesment that, Saints deserved the win just for their defence