Yeah I mean who would want a man who coached a (supposedly) weaker side than the previous year, in his first year as coach, and get them to finish top of the league.

If anything, tonight could serve as an important mental boost, a huge weight off our shoulders. Going into the play-offs on the back of 4 defeats in a row to you would have been horrible.

Disgusting tackle from a cheap shot merchant. Similar to when Newton nailed Long all them years ago. Luckily James Child grabbed hold of his nuts and set him off - not sure many other refs would have done so.

The most amusing thing about this is Wane's reaction: ridiculously biased.

Pure thuggery plain and simple. We need a return to the days of 8 game bans for that kind of cheapshot, but no doubt he will return in plenty of time for the final regardless.

To me the win was fairly pyrrhic to be honest. We were still pretty 1-dimensional throughout and laboured to beat them even down to 12 men for most of the match. I think there's little doubt they'd have churned us up and won by 8-10 points on the night if the greatest #9 in the world wasn't a weasly cheapshot scumbag. The win won't hurt confidence but ultimately we'll need to up it another few levels from that showing to have a chance at getting mulllered at O/T again.

that was michael maguires team and coaching...when players start drifting away youll soon see how good bullfrog head is as a coach ...arrogant wayne in his playing days wasnt even a good player ..so how the likes of brett finch and pat richards can take coaching advice from a plonker like wayne who was useless as a player is beyond me...he was only given the job to save money bringing in an overseas coach...

Ah, so to be a good coach you've got to have been a good player? Funny that you mention Maguire in the post. Take the time to check out his playing stats.

McIlorum's indiscipline has been creeping into his game for a while now and he has totally gone off the boil now. He has only got himself to blame if he gets a 3 match ban and misses a potential grand final. I am not too concerned really, Matty Smith/ Tommy Leuluai can share the hooking duties over the next couple of weeks, in fact I was quite disappointed Matty wasn't on the bench last night.

Can you provide any examples?

As for it being good refereeing, I'm not too sure whether Child would have sent him off with Ganson's help following a look at the replay.
IIRC Childs started talking to McIlorum (sp) and then stopped when the replay was viewed and only then got out the red card.

It's my belief that had the match not been on Sky he wouldn't have been sent off.

He was committed to the tackle, apparently.

[iWigan coach Shaun Wane:
"I don't think the referee got it right. It looked like Micky Mac was committed. He's an important player and I want him playing for me next week. We'll go there and fight it if we have to. We feel we have a strong case.[/i


I hope they put another match onto his ban just for the idiocy of the above comment!

Dirty Queens b-stard, simple!

To be honest I didn't think it was really a thuggish act. Yes it was wrong and deserved a red and probably two or three games but, but certainly not on a par with newton or hocks best efforts. Talking of hock, what has happened to him? He almost single handedly destroyed saints earlier in the season, last night it took till the 76th minute for him to do anything. Maybe the quality of his coke has gone down. And thank god we didn't sign finch, he has drifted back to anonymity.

Wane is in cloud cuckoo land. It was a house trick. Not only very late but clobbered a bloke with his back turned. Anything less than 2 games with his previous is a farce.

Not.much of a superleague this season though.

Who would have thought it, a team with no proper coach for most of he season and without any recognised half backs, can play rubbish for most of the season and yet still finish 3rd.
The league leaders shield this year is really a true hub cap standard.

Olde fashioned stiff arm...

2 match ban but as its wigan, a ticking off and £1000 fine prolly.

Did anyone else see the missed uppercut from Hock [size=25(said in a clearing the throat manner)[/size in the next set of 6.

Wigan have played with a lot of aggression all season. Watch them in the tackle, every tackle is a facial, my presumption is this is why Perry lost his rag...

Talking of which best game Ive seen him have in a saints shirt thought he really took it to them still think he is better than that tho.

Quite a few swear dodges going on here, consider this a first warning to all using them. One or two need to be added to the swear filter, but putting in * is not an excuse.

Keep it pre watershed please.

I would have intervened sooner except I lost the internet after the match last night.

Feel free to be irrate and express your exasperation, but be more creative than using anglosaxon language.

Well said

Was a clear sending off, and im glad the officials didnt take the soft option of putting it on report.

Very reminiscent of the worst of Terry Newton, and proper old school British Rugby League thuggery.

I think the point he as trying to make was Newton was a dirty sod and so is McIllorum , both of which are true and the fact Newton isnt with us anymore doesnt change that fact.

Did not see it but was listening to Manchester, who were pretty much saying well it was a red, but should not have been a red because it spoiled the game.

The usual double standards you get from the press nowa days.

ie I'll say it was correct, but then bash the ref for spoiling the game.

Either it's a red or not, considering TP got a red for a high shot which was very marginal in france as I thought the shoulder only hit the head after the ball. ie bounced up. So anything close to that for consistency should also be a red. If it was high and late, then that makes it even easier for the ref to see red.

Either way we still seamed to struggle to break them down in attack considering the man difference.

Thanks for last night and good luck for next week, you’ve done it before this season so there’s nothing to fear! By the way, great support from you guys last night, nice to read here last week about so many of your fabulous fair weather supporters weren’t coming, I see they’ve all crawled out of the woodwork now; they may want to crawl back into it next weekend?

Mickey Mac deserved the sending off and should get three games, two for the offence and one for being stupid enough to think he could get away with it. I think Perry may get a call for the forearm into Lima's face late in the game and was also a lift in the tackle from Dudson that needs looking at.

I still say Kelvin Skerrett, is the sith lord, or grand daddy of the underhanded dirty play.