as you may know mathers played in the reserves this week .
according to form he had quite a poor game from what i have been told.
nobby was at the game. with richards performing so well at fb and ainscough doing a great job on the wing. does this spell the end for mathrs ?
even if ainscough or roberts got injured, pryce (who did have a strong game in the reserves) could go on the wing .
mathers was even put in at 6 for a while and his distribution was shocking .

I'm guessing whoever told you this missed the 2 tries that he set up, he actually played well when he went to 6.

funny that because the guy that told me mathers had a shocker is a wigan player himself. strange how opinions differ.

Mathers will continue to be a squad player until the end of the season, then I guess he will be off

Bloody Hell Mathers.

play him maundy thursday

The thought of Mathers coming back in this team when we've seen how good Richards is there fills me with dread.

Unless a horrific injury crisis strikes, Mathers won't play for Wigan again.

Mathers started awful at fullback and was hesistant, unsure, caught in two minds and seemed very low in confidence. However, when he switched to Stand off he played well. He gave some decent passes and kicks which we even scored off. As time went on playing at stand off his confidence and talk grew and it brought out the best in him.

However, playing better at a position where he will realisitically never break the first team will do no favours for him. Mathers playing at stand off within the reserves will only solve reserve team solutions opposed to Mathers personal ones.

He may get a chance if we had lots of injuries in the halfs but I think Lockers and Roberts would be more likely to play there if we had 2-3 injured.

Yep. Thats about the nuts & bolts of it.

Seems like I've been right all this and last season. Richards is best at fullback, is wasted on the wing, and is miles better than Mathers in that position.

Oh don't get me wrong, he did ok playing in that position but certainly wouldn't be a suitable first team replacement.

There are better reserve team stand offs.

Well done, thats 5 games.

I argued this 2 seasons ago...seemed to be in a minority then!

Same here actually. I edited my comment prior to Hogan's little remark.

Once again, well done.

I had the discussion with another fan prior to Saturdays game and said then that I thought he was already top 3 in the SL and with an extended run could be challenging for the best. Lo and behold he goes and has a blinder...I attribute this soley to myself of course!



His positional play is 2nd to none, the safest pair of hands in S.L. and without question the best under the high ball. Started to chime into the line more effectively towards the back end of his first spell at full back (something he again showed in Saturday's game) and also began to break the line on occassion...perhaps the one real weak area of his game. As a last line of defence I would prefer no-one else. On the two occassions Bradford broke through I was always confident that Pat would deal with it and he did. Someone made the comment that we would have been 2 scores down on those plays with Mathers on the field and I can't disagree!

Pat's best position is still on the wing, however the dross we have had to deal with since Rad's has left in terms of a defensive full back has been awful. And having a FB like Pat who is a good last line of defence and solid is far better.

However there are still a few sides to Pat's play at FB that aren't as good as the top FB's in the league like taking the ball up after a kick and his support play. You can already see that his support play is improving with the more games he plays at FB. He is nowhere near the standard of other FB's such as Webb, Greenshields and Briscoe however he does do a solid yet unspectacular job.

If we had a fullback like Webb in the team then we wouldnt have an option to play Pat there, however under the circumstances he is the best option we have.

I said all last season that Pat should be first choice FB and I really expected Mathers to leave and Pat to get the number 1 jersey for this season. Then Lenagan went and pi55ed all over my dreams and kept Mathers on for another hair pulling season.

But then if that had been the case who would we have had on the wings?

Pryce may not have been fit enough. Roberts was meant to be signed for 2010 and Ainscough might not have had his chance.

At least this way we have good cover and the squad looks strong.

Surely we shouldn't be keeping a player on when they are so poor just because there is nobody else? Lenegan took a chance with Mathers and it hasn't paid off. Hopefully he realises this now and Mathers will leave if not soon but definitely at the end of the season.

I've posted on this before, but one more time won't hurt! (probably lol) On support play: He's consistently and constantly improving. That is one of the aspects of FB play that improves the more experience you gain in this position. To compare him to the likes of Webb, a lifelong fullback, is meaningless. He is showing all the signs of improvement in this area you could possibly expect for someone with a no more than a handful of games in this position, to the point where last Saturday he supported virtually every break and had Sam, for example, passed when he supported the break he could quite easily have had a hat-trick!

How much better do you want at this stage of his FB career?

Re: taking the ball up. You need to differentiate between this and breaking the line. The former he is fine at, the latter is the weak part of his game. Because his positional play is excellent he consistently makes between 10- 15 metres on every return. He goes to ground quickly enabling a quick play the ball which on the back of the yardage made puts us on the front foot. He doesn't break the line as often as I (or others) would like but, given this is the one and only area of weakness in his game, and given all the other strengths he brings to the position is relatively minor. I'll happily forgo this for all the positives. Webb isn't perfect..he can be dodgy under the high ball for instance...but given all the other attributes he brings to the position he is still one of the best. Give him an extended run and at the rate he is progressing he will be among the best in the league. Indeed, as I said elsewhere, he already is.

Spot on in all observations. And Radders wasn't the best line breaker either, but he did all the other things well, just Paddy is doing now.

What about have we saw the last of tim smith because fans can stand losing when we have got wiganers in the side but when he is an aussie/kiwi were less forgiving.

There are certain personnel at the club who wouldn't be surprised if Tim didn't last the season - and it doesn't worry them too much.