I wouldn't read too much into one game. It's a long season.

You look like saints last year

Plenty quality and no direction . You'll win plenty games against average opposition but when quality, organised opposition turn up you'll be buggered

In no particular order: Ratchford, Westwood, Hill....even Higham still.

An earlier comment suggested that the club hadn't produced any noticeable talent in over ten years; is that so? And if it is, surely that's a worry....although with the concentration of (supposedly) bigger clubs in the vicinity, perhaps talented youngsters are being signed by what may appear to mums and dads as better propects. Maybe the last few years challenging for stuff will add appeal.....?

I just don't get Ryan Atkins. Absolutely fantastic physique for rugby league, shows every now and again his quite strong and got decent hands. All the attributes to be a top centre, yet for me he is absolutely rubbish! Scores a few tries against poor opposition but once the big teams turn up he hides imo.

I'll guarantee (barring injuries) that Percival has a better season for Saints.

Forget all them Ben Currie is the player i'd take at Saints any day of the week and i know Saints tried to sign him which is why Warrington offered him a big contract for one so young. Poor game tonight but this lad will be Englands best forward soon imo.

I can see us Widnes doing the double over u again this year We have got a little stronger while u have got a little weaker and well we all know what happened last year

.only time will tell. Have the wheels fell of at warrington

This. Can't remember the last time we started a season at full pelt (I actually remember seeing a quote in the last week or so from someone, possibly TS, admitting we wouldn't be starting at our best) and we've got plenty of time to get it right. Some of the reactions on here are well over the top.

Look forward to it, if that's your season expectations, you're more fked than we are.

Saddened makes a good point, hearing that bench announced was what hit me. 12 months ago we had seasone internationals coming off the bench and making an impact, that wasn't the case last night and it really told with the way Saints completely controlled the ruck and made us play the entire 80 minutes at their pace. Things like attacking football can be relatively easy worried but I think the lack of power up front will cause us headaches all season.

Another disappointment for me was the way that nobody really stood up to lead from the front. Waterhouse ran his blood to water in the first half but that's probably it. The heads went down way too early and there was nobody attempting to get them back up which should not be happening in round one.

In a nutshell, simply not good enough. I get that it's a long season etc but for me you should never accept a performance like that against local rivals. Leeds will be one heck of a challenge but if we can address the above I think it will do wonders RL go there and earn a bit of respect.

Never dull!

it is an indication of the performance level that Waterhouse was our best player. That never happens!

Do you mean 'have the wheels [ifallen[/i off'? If so, then no, just one poor display. Enjoy being above us in the table for a week or so.

Its going to be a long season watching teams scoring try after try down Riley's wing AGAIN.

I would drop him now and bring someone else in... even after all these years playing on the wing, he still has no idea how to play as a winger.... i don't see a worse winger in the whole of super league. Absolute liability.

Ditto to everything that has been posted about last night's game. What was worrying was that Saints really didn't play out of their skin to beat us, they didn't have to! Has all this training in Australia done more harm than good? At one point early in the 2nd half last night on our own 20, there were 5 Wire players with hands on haunches blowing hard. Bloody disappointing performance to say the least.

The thing that really irked me last night was the lack of effort/fitness. When we had the ball we were almost stood still and passing the ball along a stationary line until a gang of saints players came in and jumped on the ball carrier....

then when saints had the ball, we stood still waiting for the opposition to run at us... You can excuse poor performance, but you cant excuse lack of effort... every side in superleague (apart from maybe London) would have beaten us last night

Saints played the game like it was a play off eliminator.. we played the game like no one cared about the result....It was a very very poor display... God help us when we play someone decent.

God help us when we play some team not decent too!

That performance was relegation football standard. Smith said we competed in the first half.
what was he watching, the Winter Olympics?

It really makes me laugh when the s on here are moaning and writing the team off after one game, these are the same people moaning about the fact that the league games dont matter and the season only starts in September, the same people that critisise every player for not being fully fit in February when the season doesnt start til September. We are playing the game and we will be one of if not the best team in the league at the end of the season again. Five players out that would be ib our starting 17. "Weak Bench"? Try putting Wood, Harrison, England, Russel and Grix on the bench and we look good as one of them will miss out.
Have your winge and get it out of your system as people may remind you of it in a few months time.

To be fair, i love a good moan

We were very poor last night, saints hit the ground running, we just hit the ground.

Just a couple of comments.

What on earth is M Monaghan doing at half back ? I thought Paul Cullen proved that wasn't a good idea. Is it some sort of loyalty by TS ?

It looks as if Riley is playing himself out of the team. His defence is woeful.

I think Dwyer should be brought in with MM moving down. He is obviously past his best.

Ratchford was poor last night, out of position time after time.

Tony Smith has been worshipped on here as a god. Now is a really good time for him to prove his coaching skills.

See that small club mentality is still there at Widnes, If beating us is all you care about.

From an outsider looking in I thought your halves struggled due to your pack being completely dominated when Hill and Asotasi went off. Even with them on you struggled to make any kind of platform. As a result you went from side to side and the Sts aggressive defence had time to shut you down (All credit to saints). It is $hit playing in the halves behind a beaten pack as set structure goes out the window and plays become slow and predictable.

Some poor ref decisions didn't help either like but thats par for the course isn't it.

You'll still be up there though come the end of the season I have no doubt.

I assume your posting this with some irony given you havent won a league title in over half a century?





Losing Briers is massive for you and it will take time to get over it.

On the plus side your transition is being managed by a decent coach , we got Mick Plonker and he set us back years

No you're right, we played well and just got pipped to victory by Saints.

This is the most sensible post I've read. First five minutes all was rosy, even ten minutes - Bridge break down the right.... Then Atkins "knocked on" (really?) and St Helens got on a roll. We shouldn't have fallen apart like that but we did and the 40/20 was freakishly brilliant. Nine times out of ten that ball would not have ended up there. We did suffer when Hill and Asotasi went off (the latter was good with the ball, but I didn't see much intensity in defence) and Riley and Evans were on a hiding to nothing. But imagine if that was Wood and Harrison coming on.... Still, I thought Evans was ok. Second half we started to panic and then things started to compound each other (the Riley/Ratchford mix up; Westwood trying too hard). Still, when we scored our try, it was even in terms of the scoreboard in the second half. Then we went back a decade and let in two more tries at the end.

On individuals - Monaghan (M) was woeful but hey ho, he always was in the halves. Myler was invisible but we can all have off days - last year, he was player of the season in the first few weeks.

On comments from the fans - "too many penalties - that's the kids" at which point we'd conceded two penalties - Higham and Waterhouse. And many more random comments which give a whole new meaning to the word kneejerk.

Whoah whoah whoah, you can't go having an opinion........(whispers) you'll be accused of being a tossser.

You've got to tow the usual, "it's our year this year" line, don't you know!

The only reason i could see for Monas in at 6 is that he is bedding O'brien in and thought he would be better coming off the bench after 20 mins, no idea why but that is the only thing i could get from it.