Fu k me they need to work on simple play the balls

Been terrible this second half... two awful teams.

Scruffier than Scruffy McScruffface but a win's a win.

Julien's done more in one night, than all of our second rowers have done all season.

Well done to Ratchford and Philbin, too.

P.S. My next door neighbour's 50odd year old wife is more of a rugby player than Evans. A walking Frank Spencer.

Good goal-line defence, made plenty of yards, still clueless near the line and can't make a break to save our lives



Two points though

bobbins of a game..we were the better team,,,just..be glad when kev penny is back..philbin had a good game as did ratchford..nuff said

We were poor second half but played lots of the game with livett and philbin as the only interchanges. Philbin had a wow of a game. Best I've ever seen him play.

If he doesn't keep his place after that it would be a travesty but given the injuries tonight I think it's in no doubt.

If we could get one or both of westerman & Clark back for Monday that would be a boost. Cooper too if possible.

Got to say that Philbin had another good game tonight as did Livett, but, my pick for our MOM would be Lineham he went looking for and got through plenty of work. Seems to have turned it around

Agree about Lineham. Thought he did well last week too.

Also thought George King got through a tonne of work...... in a fully fit team I'd have him above Hughes at the moment.

Jullien, Gidley (especially at 9), and Ratchford were all excellent. I would have given Jullien the MOM.

a Mate pointed out last night that Hughes has been a lot better this last two games, it may have something to do with him playing his natural grafter game again, and we're not asking him to be Ben currie.

That pass to ratch that hull scored from was the currie ratch special move, we've been trying get him to be a ball player. Obviously it's had an overall detrimental effect.

As has been mentioned, big pat on the back for George, he cops done stick on here as he's not James graham, I think he's coming along nicely though.
Good game again from Joe, seems to be working his balls off at the moment, despite being a foot shorter than everyone else.

Thought Chris Houston of Widnes gave a penalty away everytime he was involved with game. The incident with Bentham was a strange one.

I still can't get over the JFK moment when Sims broke a tackle, worth the admission fee alone. I think there is a good opportunity now to start giving the youngsters more SL time even with a fully fit first team squad. We could afford to rest a few senior players & we might see that the first team squad is not necessarily our best squad.
The defence held out well ,but our ability to score was poor especially in the second half but, on the other hand, Widnes wanted to win just as much as us.

We put the ball down 6 times on tackle one or two. As a result getting in widnes' half was hard enough in the 2nd half hence limited scoring opportunity.

Yes it's amazing how a player can impress when trying to gain a contract extension or put themselves in a shop
Window.
We seem to give some of our players a comfort zone with long contracts.

Now's the time for our "fringe" the players, i.e. squad numbers 18+, to force their claims for regular games. Let's face it, 1-17 haven't exactly covered themselves in glory since February, have they? Easter is a time for rotation. We've a lot more depth than most. Let's see them rise to the occasion.

As I said earlier, Julien shone last night, and along with Philbin. Plus there's the Kings. About time we saw something from Savelio, rather than brief cameos, and we've still got Penny to come back

I don't think Penny will be back.

For me Toby King looks like the most natural centre coming through at the moment if he carries on developing will be an international for years to come for me. Also from an outsider Julien is a beast, his tackling technique is superb

Couldn't decide whether to feel encouraged or not after that game. I thought we played pretty well in the first half, but on the other hand Widnes looked like a Championship side. In the second half we were back to our bad ways of making errors and we looked disjointed in attack - but then we had lost Clark and Westerman prior to the game and had to reshuffle the side when we lost Russell and Atkins. With two points in the bag and a good performance from the younger players, perhaps it was the 'glass half full' view that won the day.

PS thought Ratchford had a good game and was starting to look his old self with 3 good breaks (and one dropped high ball).

I think we are progressing. I expect Widnes to pick up some wins from now on. We were fortunate with the Westwood incident vs Leeds, I feel things may had been tighter had Sutcliffe recovered.
Hull look to be the new whipping boys. Disappointing we only drew our game.
However, come Magic, Warrington will be a form team again.

Did Ratchford actually catch one of those high balls in one hand?

Yes. Ratchford was exceptional bar one dropped ball. No coincidence his return and our return to form

His worse enamy when Ratchet runs the ball one handed....is his own knee!

I feel a lot more confident when a bomb goes up with Ratchford receiving than any other full back candidate!

Always had a soft spot for Julien, his bruising tackles last year always got my juices flowing. It was nice to see he hasn't lost that grit and I'd keep him in the side if possible.

Philbin and George King had great games. As did Lineham.

My love for Ratchford just keeps growing, as said above I'm never more confident when a bomb goes up than when he's underneath it.

I feel our second half was a "we're winning, let's hang on" performance and any other side would've punished us for our errors. Plenty of room for improvement but it's the points that matter at this point.

Wigan didn't do too bad after winning ugly for most of last season & a 1 point win is better than losing.