True, Gardner to his credit also finished both his scores well.

Quite literally men against boys but an enjoyable game, oddly enough.

Lee Doran ran himself into the ground again tonight and really tried to carry the pack along but we never looked like making many yards at any stage of the game.

Thought Tom Kelly put in a big stint of what I had down as around 60 minutes which is a great effort for an 18 year old lad in only his third outing in the first team against a monster of a pack.

Notable mentions too for Houghon and Kav who took it to the Wigan pack.

Cant complain about any player really because it was a decent effort under the circumstances and the class, power and pace of Wigan was evident from the first to the last minute.

So, half your squad (yoof) aint good enough for SL.

SOC to the rescue !!!

I beg to differ, give it a couple more years and Tom Kelly and Dave Houghton will be able to do the business, and you dont have any Yoof squire so bugger off.

considering they've put similar scores on 2 other SL teams our YOOF did good

I'll enjoy skinning and gutting you when i get off this river bank



...............and you too Snot

You can be proud of the effort shown today. Your lads never gave in. Scored two great tries as well.

They'll be better off for the experience.

All the best for the rest of the year.

meerly nibbling at the bait rather than taking it

wanted to make that point either way

Can't complain about the score, wouldn't take anything away from anyone. Except the ref and the comical decisions. I mean, there was only ever one team in it but we could've done with less of a plank in the middle.

Very early days yet, but Tom Kelly looks like being a very handy player.

I thought overall we didn't do too badly. Found it very frustrating at times in the 1st half but much better 2nd. As said already it was very much men against boys, but we never gave up.

1 thing I think has had its day is Paddy Flynn up the middle. Every week now he is driving it in felt pelt at props. Last week against Featherstone, he ran into someone and took a knock to the face and today he was getting knocked about left right and centre. Matt Gardner is a big lad and can use his size and strength to his advantage but, IMO Flynn isn't doing anyone any good with these tactics and i really do fear he's going to get a Mark Smith type knock if he's not carefull. He's half the size of some of the forwards and quite often its Paddy's face going into the forwards shoulder.

Sam Tomkins.... what a player? Was trully a pleasure to watch this lad last night and boy did he love playing against us!!

From our point of view, I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I was hoping that we might have done a little better in the opening stages but having said that the side that we put out was missing a hell of a lot of players. I thought that a few of their tries could have been prevented with some slightly better defense and we missed a lot of tackles and fell off a lot of runners. No-one seemed prepared to tackle round the legs until Hulmey came on.

I think the young lads did well up against the best side in SL at the moment.

The ref played the part of the panto villain very well.

I was disappointed with the attendance.. it was amazing to see the east stand full of fans.. it was just a shame that the Widnes fans did not manage to get there in good numbers. I am trully worried about the state of things where this is concerned and the effect that a few more seasons in this division will have on us.
Special comment must be reserved though for the complete neanderthals that sat behind us last night... I'm not a prudish guy and cannot say that I haven't sworn at a match before but the stuff these guys were coming out with last night was abhorrent. Not just them but the lad that was with them too who was egged on by the adults. They even vented at Farrell!!!!
Now... back to the business of the league and hopefully a few players to return for Thursday night..

Chris this league is dying and the sooner we get out the better, i do feel sorry for any clubs left after the next franchise decision. From a Widnes point of view im sure most clubs will be gutted to see us go mainly for away speccies we take and the money they get. They will IMO drop a Yorkshire club to make way for whoever they decide fit for a license to boost the likes of Batley/Dewsbury etc and that will most likely be Cas IMO.

I cant see them getting rid of Salford.

By the same token, the bottom of Super League is dying too. Attendances for what is a premier competition in the bottom half are dire. Also, have a look at the forums of those clubs. Unhappy miserable doom. Super League is great - unless you're in the lower ranks. Make sure you get to a level that Wakey are at or better, otherwise it's going to be naff. I'm sure SOC will make sure you thrive.

We have Jose Mourinho as Coach 'The Special One' will see us right.

Interesting stuff last night too, i had a name given to me that were trying to get for Super Dooper League and my first thoughts were 'WOW'.

Will be exciting stuff at the Stobarts if we get the nod.

That doesn't surprise me. It may not seem like it but he hasn't got long to recruit. Some quality players sign for 2 years + so those coming out of contract soon are now on the market. SOC probably won't announce them until January 2011 after the nod has been given.

It will be difficult for us the first couple of years but Terry O'connor knows the market well and had numerous contacts abroad.

You need to hit the ground running like the first time you entered SL.

Oh yes i remember the first well www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aqusz908Do

Oh yes i remember the first well www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aqusz908Do

I remember the first few. Didn't you win a few on the trot? I certainly remember Widnes surprising everyone with the start they made.

Got pipped by Saints in the first game and then went to Cas and beat them and then got pipped by the Bulls before beating Wakefield and your lot.

Happy days.

No disgrace in that result/scoreline, especially with the number of players missing for you. Oddly enough, I thoroughly enjoyed our similar tonking at Bradford on Friday, when a fairly makeshift team competed very well, and entertainingly for long spells of a game, that was played in a very good spirit.

How many of your casualties are expected back on Thursday? I expect the usual exciting game, whatever sides we turn out. Hopefully a big crowd will come over from Widnes, to provide a cracking atmosphere for SKY.

The game went pretty much as I anticipated. Wigan just kept running at us up the middle and cut through us like we weren’t there. It was just far too easy at times. Once they broke through it was quickly moved out wide for easy trys.

I’m not criticizing our team at all. They did their best and there were some very good performances, under the circumstances. Doran ran his blood to water and Gardener played well. Hulmey is improving every game and Kavanagh put himself about too. We also saw an excellent debut from Tom Kelly. I’ll go along with VM on our MOM and give that to Dave Houghton.

Great turn out from the Wigan fans, but a worryingly poor turn out from us. I expected at least 6,000 and nearer 7,000.

I’ve been saying for some time that Sam Tomkins is the best young player I’ve seen for some time, and he didn’t disappoint last night. He cut us to pieces.

V4E put a very interesting post, on the TIW board. He put together a team made up of the injured players and players that are unavailable. He claimed it would hammer the team we put out last night, and I think he might be right. So things will get a lot better when we start to get some of them back.

Jordan James
Kirk Netherton
Ben Davies
Jim Gannon
Shaun Ainscough
Daniel Heckenberg

Should all be available for Leigh

And possibly Dave Allen, not sure whats quite up with his ankle yet. Oh and Dean Gaskell is now ready to go but doubt he will play due to game fitness.

What you saw from Sam last night was the sort of thing those of us have been fortunate to watch him from being 16 have seen coming to fruition.
His pace, elusiveness and most of all reading of the game borders on frightening. He's the best I've seen since Shaun Edwards.

Watched the game on DVD today.

My thoughts...

Thackeray and Webster are Super League class. They led from the front. Not sure if Webster will have it in him come 2012 if we were so lucky to reach the elite, but he underlined his class.

Doran and Kavanagh were both really good. Kav is undoubtedly a SL player from what I've seen. Not too sure how old Doran is now, but he is a top player imo.

Was extremely disappointed with Toa Kohe Love, who was anonymous. Not expecting him to set the game alight, but didn't put his hand up for any work.

Danny Hulme put a good stint in also, as well as couple of the big young lads.

Sam Tomkins is unbelievable and the best English half-back I've seen in many years. Sean O'Loughlin is also world class.