I've been watching for 51 years and that the worst SF "performance" I've ever seen.
Not even good enough to be called embarrassing.

Good luck to Salford. I think they held back for the last 30 minutes thinking of next Saturday.
An absolute fantastic achievement for them and I hope they approach next week thinking that they can win rather than enjoying the day.

So would you say the coach is at fault? To be when there’s so many issues...

I agree with some of your points. But Lam inherited a championship winning team that went undefeated in the playoffs. Even with departing stars like Sam and Bateman he had an excellent platform to work with.

Old heads were just that, old, and the kids were burned out after dragging us out the mire since Magic Weekend.
No scrum half with a kicking game to try and turn Salford's pack round and there was only ever going to be one result.
Congratulations to Salford, thoroughly deserve their trip to OT.

Certainly one of the worst performances I’ve seen with a strong team out. I felt it coming. All week I’ve felt a bit 50/50 on how it would go but when I read Sarginson was out it smashed any optimism I had. It’s a sign of the times regards how bad our forwards are at going forwards that I felt losing Sarg was a killer blow. He’s no superstar but he’ll always grab you 100-150m and put you on the front foot. Hankinson is a reasonable player and the type of guy who won’t lose you a game but he won’t do much to win one either.

They wanted it more, it’s as simple as that. I knew before the game when I looked at both crowds, I knew Salford would win then.

We look totally disjointed, there must be something going on within that team that is causing a lack of cohesion. Whether it’s poor management allowing cliques or something else.

Would you blame him?

Said after the game about the three young forwards that they’ve been brilliant, a credit to the club and themselves. They gave us a boost when we needed it and were the main factor in our run of good results but the play offs go up in intensity and certainly in the case of Partington and Byrne, it went a notch past what they’re capable of at the moment. There’s no shame in that, they’re babies and it’ll be a great lesson but Lam really should’ve changed the team tonight. Guys like Greenwood and Navarette may not be world beaters but they’re play off experienced and won a Grand Final 12 months back. Hopefully Lam learns from this going in to 2020.

Agree with nearly all of that except for Lam.
He ain't the guy and tonight for me underlined that he hasn't got a clue.
If flower wasn't fit he shouldn't have picked him and SOL isn't a starting 13 anymore.

I've no problem losing and Salford were well worth their win but we were abysmal in every single aspect of the game.

I genuinely think that Lam is in a position way above his capabilities. We played like 17 strangers who decided to have a game of tick and pass after an afternoon on the ale. Unfortunately we played against a team who knew what they had to do and turned out ready for a game.

We've got some exciting signings for next year but the last 2 games have probably already determined that it will be difficult in the extreme to get back lost supporters and highly unlikely that we will get any new ones.

Regardless of whether anyone thinks Lam is good enough to coach this team (jury's still out for me) on tonight's performance you certainly can't blame him for:

* Kicking the ball out on the full - twice.
* Passing the ball into touch - three times.
* Knocking on at the play the ball - twice.
* Giving away kickable penalties for high shots/flops - four times?

That's down to the players. Now maybe he can share some of the blame for not getting our players 'up for it' two weeks in a row. But the whole team have put out two shockers on the trot. Credit does need to go to the opposition on this as well though.

He seems a pretty honest and professional fella and wore his Salford heart on his sleeve and played with passion and pride, just like he will with Wigan next year

100%. It sounds a bit churlish to say the improved form was more down to the limitations of others but the quality of SL this year must be as bad as it’s ever been.

good post ...but its hard to get get support back to anything like your heady days of 15 /18k at home games your fan base as dropped of really bad tbf in the last few years is it the sign of the times in wigan oh just RL in general

Totally agree.

Lee Mossop could lift the SL trophy next week. Let that sink in...

Where to start? French is never a half and going into a game with an obviously unfit hooker and no replacement on the bench was looking for trouble. Powell was back to his sluggish old self, I assume because of injury and when Tommy went off we were down two pivots who are usually our best tacklers. The backs seem to have forgotten each other. When Marshall went off I assumed that French would go onto the wing and Lockers to the halves but they did not seem to know who was doing what. We really need to decide who will be playing on the wing and in the centres as we have bought a winger who sometimes plays centre and a fullback who we do not know what to do with.
In the forwards we were depending on three young lads to do what the older heads could not. Neither Smithies or Partington can crash through down the middle and none of them should be playing so many first team games at this stage. Most of our senior middles look ready for the knackers yard and much as I respect what they have done, Lockers and Clubb really should think about calling it a day. It is a shame that Mr "Biscuit" Greenwood was not playing as at least he has some size. I know that size has been the issue for a while and is being addressed but we have choked the life out of teams this season rather than really dominating them. Tonight looked like two games to far. We had scraped past Salford two weeks ago and then Stains handed us our s so when we meekly capitulated to Salford tonight I was not really too upset but we have a lot to do in the off season. Hopefully Hastings and the new forwards will give us a bit of go forward but I hope that we have a five year plan because wholesale changes are badly needed.

I hope he does.
I thought he he was pretty useless in his second stint with us but give the guy his due he seems to be turning it around and does far more minutes than he was ever allowed at our place.
Good on him.

Yes its mostly Lams fault. He is the coach and it is his responsibility to make sure that the players do not make those errors by having them prepared and focused. For the past two weeks we have not looked anything like prepared and focused. A well coached team does not make basic errors over and over.

There is no happier man in Wigan tonight, than Shaun Wane.

Interesting listening to his post match comments.
Watson has made him once again ‘fall in love’ with the game. A sign of good coaching and man management to get the most out of a player who seemed to be on the decline.

You obviously don't know waney

A poorly coached team doesn't make it to 2nd in the league either.

On one side of the coin it’s laughable that his ilk could do that but on the other I do want to throw plenty of praise about Salford getting everything they can out of their team. At no point tonight was I really angry about what was happening on the field because for the second game in a row it wasn’t a contest, it was pitiful. I sat with my mate who is only a casual RL fan and he was asking me what to expect after last week and I said I would hope that Lam has said to take the emotion out of the game, get to the kick in the first set and bang some heads on our first defensive set. Sadly not.

But Lam is a coach not a spectator. When the team plays rubbish and makes obvious mistakes like holding off in defence v Saints you expect him to address it. Not by saying "don't do that again" but by giving them some ideas as to how to play differently.

The buck has always stopped with the coach and we have seen what difference a good coach can make when Madge arrived. Look at the comments re Lee Mossop. Our team looks a lot less "in love" with the game than he does.

There is somewhat of an over reaction here which is entirely predictable given the last two results.

Lam should stay and fully prove his mettle in 2020. This season has been a rollercoaster to paraphrase AL and couldn’t have been the easiest to manage and coach in. He deserves a shot at 2020 for getting us to where he did despite it being wholly unlikely a few months ago.

Should he not deliver and the standard continues he must go but that’s a debate for much further down the line.

Yes we were poor, far away from the standards we set under Wane but let’s be fair we never envisaged we’d be here. Well played to Salford and here’s hoping for a new name on the Super League trophy.