The forwards let us down in the first half, LMS was having a field day. Same story with Bateman for Bradford the other week, he took the p*ss and Cas knocked the front row all over the place.

I thought Taylor did well when he came on, got us going forward and Faz seemed to take a drive up almost every set. Mossop had a couple of big drives late on but not enough in the first 20 for me. The others were disappointing, especially Dudson who was well off the pace.

We did well to fight our way back and take the lead but just at the point I sensed we could settle the game down, we lost the plot. It was a bit of a worry not to finish that game strongly as I don’t feel saints played that well and we should have been able to stretch them a lot more than we did.

We were down to 12 from the 67 min mark to the 77 min... Were you not watching the game!!!

I think Faz needs not a week off but a month off the lad looks bolloxed, and the sky pundits picked up on this too, he was being used as a prop virtually all game we cant afford to burn him any more we need him to be up to speed for the play-offs. I know the lad is probably our best athlete but for me the lad needs to be rested.

both teams were missing their 2 best players.

Yep! and we beat them too and Leeds. Last night we had far more players missing than you. You seem lost without Lockers and Sam.

Pat is missing a decent thats all he's getting no room to work with and this comment you made shows you know nothing about rugby

Best side minus Soliola, Roby, Wheeler, Gardner, Percival and O'Brien and Walmsley for half the game. Injuries were pretty even, so in context, injuries/team selection can't be used as an excuse.

In order for a half back to ship the ball attacking options need to be there and there were very little from Wigan. IMO Smith is very underated and has a fantastic kicking game. If you had won via his drop goal I don't think any of you would be calling him

Read what i wrote, not what you think i wrote...

Sounds like the Saints are having a great season it just shows how bringing in a top coach like Nathan Brown can revitalise a club and I'm sure you are all looking forward to being able to give some of the big clubs a run for their money in the coming years.

The consistency of losing big games by tight margins is what worries me. Can think of a few games that we've been on the wrong side of.

Saints last night
Wire last month
Leeds away this year
Huddersfield away
Leeds in the CC semi
Leeds in the play offs

They're just the ones off the top of my head. Most of them games don't involve Sam either. This must be a mentality thing and you got to look at Wane and question why we're coming up short?

I've only just signed up here but I said at the start of the year we'd struggle to win anything this year. However, if we get past London and get to Wembley, it'll be interesting to see how we do in a big game against potentially a team that we've struggled to beat under Wane.

Good wingers make room they look for the ball. Can't keep blaming the centres, this is week in week out

What a difference a day makes (there’s a good title for song there) I can’t believe the one’s who are skipping for joy today, are the same ones who only yesterday were going to hang themselves, and Mr Brown with that same bit of rope. Let’s see how long your jubilee lasts? The bitter disappointment of last night will not spoil my day as I drive down to Wembley on the 24th of august, but some other team may spoil my drive back, but for sure it won’t be saints!

It was an underuse of our so called "one set move" that was our main problem in attack last night. When we did actually ship it out and Hampshire was able to chime in to the attacking line we looked dangerous, i.e Charnley's 2nd try. These instances were few and far between though. When we did have field position we seemed insistent on just letting the props plod it forward. Players like Green, Smith an McIlorum are still way off the pace after injury and we need these back to early season form if we are going to contest for trophies.

Main overall problem from last night though, our god awful discipline and inability to keep hold of the ball. We managed to get in to a lead and then consistently piggy-backed them up the field with stupid penalties.

I can't get rid of the niggle that we are doing exactly what we did last season, awesome mid-season form then the wheels coming off when it really matters. I hope I am wrong, though.

Smith halted this move almost everytime last night. Hes shown hes got some class (warrington away) but his decision making is so annoyingly inconsistent.

He obviously lacked faith in whoever was outside him (Hampshire, Tuson).

Well exactly, why did we need to be a man down in the last 20? A string of daft penalties at a point when we needed to control the game. Poor finish.

Poor ball control in the first twenty minutes and poor discipline in the last twenty cost us the game.

Where was Pat on that kick return from Makinson that won Saints the game? Had he moved to fullback when Green was sin binned?

Pat should have kicked to the right hand side, where the left hand side was venerable because of Green being sin binned left Gelling on his own.

Pat didn't kick. Smith did.

I presumed Pat had moved inside for a drop goal attempt but he waved it away and Smith put in a shocker. The chase was woeful/non existant and we were punished.

We need to sort our discipline out though. Yes the shoulder charge rule is a joke but surely we should have realised Child was all over it.

My main gripe is with the forwards. An error-ridden, ill-disciplined display was summed up by Dudson, which is unusual for him, losing the plot on a few occassions. The forwards were more interested in niggling than doing the hard yards. I do have a feeling it is to do with complacency with us mullering them in the forwards the last few times. In addition, Wane's comments of "the points can be picked up later in the season" gave the impression he was willing to lose this one, which I can understand with saturday coming up.

Also, Matty Smith needs to get back to form very quickly. His pass selection last night was shocking and he did not trust Hampshire at all, the attack continually broke down with him.

All will be probably forgotten on saturday if we win which is most likely, however if we play like that London will push us.

You can throw what you want at it, but the fact of the matter is our coach has great difficulty getting our team winning and playing well without Sam Tomkins, it's a fact.

It's very worrying to think Wane has such massive issues minus Sam. Yes Lockers was missing, but there's been times he's played when Sam didn't when we lost.

Blame the pack, whatever, but the one man who we really miss is Sam Tomkins, the record speaks for itself.

Yes we miss Sam but he played at Wire and we lost there without Lockers.
That midfield trio of 6,7 & 13 are all over the place.
Green isn't on form and some distance away but he has played alongside Tuson, Burke, Farrel and Lockers in the 13 shirt since he returned from injury.
Smith at times seems to be trying to hard doing everything, playmaking, taking on the line, field kicking. The whole lot needs sorting out.
Overall, what we need most is a settled team.
There are six SL games left,
At most two Cup games,
Then 3-4 play off games.
That's a maximum of 12 games provided to make the two finals.
To gain enough form to win those we need a settled spine of 1,6,7,9 & 13.
Get them playing even if one isn't 100% fit and we can match anyone.
Play without 2-3 of them and we really struggle.
End this rotation or resting players, they now have to play the season out, injuries permitting, to regain the form which could win us trophies.
One question I asked of those stood around me behind the sticks at Saints was "If this had been a Cup Tie do you think Sam, Lockers and HH would have played"?
Those asked all said yes, which prompted my question in the first place.

Well, wigan's modus operandi since 2010 has been to blitz the opposition in the first 20 minutes and kill the game, then maintain on auto pilot for the remaining 60. I think phil clarke had a stat that of the 4 games this season wigan haven't scored first, they've lost 3 and drawn 1.

Only a few teams in the league have the ability to deal with this intensity so what happens is you get a team like salford, the game will be over after 20 and they're gone, and you'll either get a big big score from wigan, or a scrappy low intensity game like 40 - 10 where it looks like a good win but the performance for 3/4 of the game has been scrappy.

We've seen in the first half of the season especially wigan putting on alot of big big scores, but when they come up against a decent team who start well, they can lack the brains and stomach for the fight. I suppose you could class wigan as they currently are, [iflat track bullies[/i

Will we ever recover from the Warrington game? Its still in the system and the mental fatigue is evident. Physically the players are all carrying niggles and playing on dry rock hard summer pitches isnt helping, somehow Wane has got to inflate the confidence bubble again before the business end of the season, I think he can do it, last nights game was a massive lesson for a lot of players. Better that happened last night and not at Wembley