Yesterday was his first real failing imo. Yes we never had a chance of winning the game but to lose by that score is unacceptable. We looked beat before we went out and the whole side looked devoid of energy. Of course injuries were the major factor and he is also paying the price for our lack of youth development in recent years but it was still a very poor performance and I also think he made a mistake picking Martin who clearly wasn't fit. Whiting should have played centre and Green brought into the 17.

I am not being anit-Gentle btw I think he's doing a fantastic job but in the interests of balance we shouldn't ignore bad performances when they come along. He'll ultimately get it right and I have complete faith in him but yesterday was a bad day.

Can't argue with that. Bill Arthur said on Boots N All that that was the most we'd ever conceded at home (including the Boulevard). Considering we had the best defence in the league up until that point, that's a huge drop in performance. Injuries or no injuries, we should be able to field 17 players that won't concede over 50 points at home.

Gentle will hopefully look at what went wrong, and not use injuries as an excuse for such a shocking performance. Wade McKinnon's performance was scandalous.

It's obvious why he risked martin and radders, our side was too inexperienced anyway. I don't see what more gentle could have done.

He hasn't used injuries as an excuse, have a listen to the radio interview, halfway down [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17734497this page[/url

Yes totally agree Paul, Green on the bench and Whiting right centre also Bowden should have played longer.

I wouldnt call yesterdays performance a failing as such but almost an inevitable end to a tough period.

In the last 16 days quite a few senior players have been forced to play alot of minutes in 4 high quality games against Rovers, Giants X2 and Wigan. Our injury situation means that player rotation has not been an option and certain players have played far more minutes then was good for them.

Lynch, Houghton, Manu and Tickle all looked flat yesterday but that shouldnt be a surprise really given their recent schedule.

I am not making excuses for Gentle but every team suffers after the Easter period often a week or two later but a tough cup draw alongside the current injury list was simply asking too much on the squad culminating in yesterdays performance.

One thing I will criticise Gentle for is playing the obviously injured Tony Martin (who deserves praise for offering his services) when the guy needs a rest to recover from his injury.

Hopefully the players will get a few days off this week to recharge the batteries and start again in 2 weeks time at home to Leeds.

quote "When their 17 are playing to the best of their ability against the 17 we had out, quality will always win out.''

Like Paul said, we were beaten before they took the field, mentally totally ill prepared imo, i think th coach, the players, everyone had written this game off as a damage limitation exercise, you cannot go into games against the likes of Wigan with that attitude.

Yesterday was simply a damage limitation day with the club just wanting the game out of the way knowing they'd be very lucky to get anything from it. I remember a few posters saying after the Salford defeat that there will be more bad days to go along with the good ones and yesterday was simply that, a bad day at the office. Best bet is just to forget and move on

I'd tend to agree. We had loads out, and some of those who played weren't fit. Contrast that with Wigan who were at full strength and had rested players the week before. One of those things, and certainly not due to a failing on Gentle's part IMO.

Dissapointing to concede that many points but quite a few of them were on the back of errors caused by either fatigue or the conditions. When you play a top quality team like Wigan they can put a score on you even with a fully fit squad so no great drama IMO. 2 weeks rest now and hopefully get some bodies back ready to start a new winning run.

Have to agree and say it can't be classed as a failing at all. Admittedly its not great to have to put players out there that are not 100% but its no good putting young lads into a team just for the sake of it especially with so many inexperienced players already in the 17.
Yesterday needed a little more experience out there but unfortunately we simply didn't have enough which comes back to the under investment in the youth set up that Pearson spoke about and the fact as fans we have all criticised the previous Coach for not giving some of the youth a chance.

No matter what we did yesterday was always going to be a hammering as the players have simply giving everything and more in what have been very tough fixtures. The weekend break will help to recharge the batteries and hopefully get some much needed players back for the fixture with Leeds.

Think to say it was a failing on Gentles part in harsh

I think people are being a bit disrespectful to Wigan who looked the real deal yesterday it was men against boys literally. We had nine players out and a couple carrying knocks even with them back in the side we would have struggled.

PS Please sign Finch use manu and Hornes wages just sign him.

nail on the head that......

Aye. Wigan certainly had the smell of blood right from the kick off and that first set of 6 set the tone for the game.

Use which ever word you think suits as I said I an not knocking the guy but we have just conceded a record number of points at home. Mitigating circumstances yes as I alluded to but it was still a very poor effort. Coach has to take some share of blame.

Agree with the 1st bit! Wigan best team iv'e seen this year! 1st set was as good as u get! Wade n manu wage would more than cover finch! Would truly love him here,so smart and always barking! Horne could go fullback n then provide good cover at 6!

Finch wants to stay and Wigan want to keep him. Not gonna happen.

He's not signed out yet and you don't know until you try. Money talks apparently.

Wigan came out knowing that they were up against a very weakened side and went for the jugular from the off and it paid off for them.

true, but if you know your in for a spanking, you dont go out with your belt undone and your pants allready down! rolled over way to easy for me no matter what side we had out.

expect him to stay there to be honest! They cant afford to lose him n tommy L in same season. Heard we've signed someone from Salford. If it isnt Broughton i wouldnt mind it being Holdsworth!

Totally agree...

The measure of the man will be how we respond once he has the majority of his players back and the playing field is more level.

to be fair he wasnt happy with yesterday still inspite of the squad we had out there. Plus as good as wigan were they couldnt have got a better bounce of the ball(2 tries from rebounds) n ref dint help us at all-especially tomkins winning pen pulling martin on him via his head guard leading to a try. Whiting was nothing special yesterday n dont think he was fully fit. Limping n ice on hamstring last week. Think it was 1 of them days were everything was aligned for us to get a good spanking!

I don't see why there even has to be 'blame'. If you take 9 first team players out of any side in our sort of position (or higher, even), then put them against one of the top two sides in the competition who are fully fit and rested, you would almost certainly get a similar sort of scoreline. And as I said, it's not just the players that were out, but those who were playing who weren't fully fit. These are not just 'mitigating circumstances', but compelling reasons for us taking a bit of a pasting. There's no 'blame' to apportion, as far as I'm concerned.

We had a lot of young players playing together with a number of patched up senior players. The opposition, possibly the best team in the league currently, had a full strength side out having had the luxury of resting some players after Easter.

I'm not really sure why the OP wants to blame anyone. It's not a question of blame but one of circumstance. The fact Wigan put 50 odd on us yesterday isn't relevant to what the club have started to do since the takeover. It wont have any great bearing on what we do for the remainder of this season or the next two. What it does do is show the size of the task ahead but that's no bad thing.