To be fair to him it was his first proper game in a fair while.

Wasn't that decision correct because the ball wasn't on the floor?

I have openly criticised Francis Meli in the past but I though he also played well today, bar the mix up with Wellens for Wigan's second try. I thought Roby, Puletua, Soliola and Meli were our stand out players today. Wilkin didn't do too bad either.

Wigan's defence in the first half was amazing but they struggled to keep it up once fatigue starting kicking in. Simmons simply has to address the lack of width in our defence, we were overlapped on countless occasions with ease.

I think the 'invincible' Wigan looked very vulnerable today and quite easily beatable. They have a few players to come back but then so do we; Pryce, Flannery and Perry. All in all I think if we was more clinical and our defence can be sured up a little more there is no reason why we shouldn't of won that game by 10+ points. Wigan looked dangerous with their chances in the first half whereas we looked flat. Some attacking flair (which Pryce can bring) will see us scoring plenty.

Also after all the hype, Jeff Lima did absolutely nothing.

saddened - with regards to wellens being a total liabilty, you must be watching a different game to me, pace or not he has the brains to be in the right position at the right time and beat the first defender. his defence is solid and rarely misses a tackle if ever. i just hope i have miss read sacrasm, if not re watch the game please

Wigan played well and we were crap for the majority of the game and the Pies still couldn't beat us. Even with having a commanding lead at one point.

I don't think we were that crap tbh. In the first half for the majority of it we was all over them, the part of our game that was crap was finishing. Wigan's goal line defence was fantastic but also we made some stupid errors and poor passes. I would like to see some territory stats for the game. The only reason Wigan took a 16-0 lead was because they could finish and we couldn't.

I love Wello don't get me wrong. But look where Saints take the first tackle most times tonight. Look where Wigan do. Saints pack made more metres (I'd guess) than they did but they always ended up 20m further down field. That's because Wello doesn't get to kicks on the full and doesn't return them that far, despite often beating a man.

I would also love to know why Meli and Gardner rush to the middle whenever there is a high ball? They are often left hopelessly out of position. If they had confidence in Wello why would they do that?

His tackling is still good, the one to hold the Goon up over the line was quality. But I still feel we'd be far better off with a pacy player at fullback.

Well seeing as Wello went off injured, presuming he isnt fit for next week who would you like there? Lomax or Foster?
Personally i'd go with Lomax as I think he has more ball skill than Foster add maybe has a yard of pace on him too. But Foster's goalkicking could come into the decision, although he doesnt seem to be able to kick them off the touchline.

i understand your reasons for your opinion and fair enough and heres to a good discussion!!!

I feel it reflects badly on wellens with regards taking kicks on the full because and especially tonight our kicking game was awful, wheeler im afraid didnt do it at 6, and as I have said over the last couple of years, granted not on here eastmond is not and never will be the answer.

I beleive that our back 3 make as many metres as each other there or there abouts so this shooting into the middle and passing to each other, dropping each other off all the time is pointless in my opinion

For me I think that draw is just papering over the cracks for you, you only got good territoy from penaltys and yet again you can only score trys from 10m out.

You wont miss Cunningham with Roby though, he is an outstanding talent.

Eastmond played like a man who's heart and head are elsewhere. I'd be very surprised if he stays.

Agreed, judging on tonight's performance though, we may be better off cashing in and buying a good replacement.

the other thing to take into consideration, our coach wasnt around for most of the week. That is likely to have caused an element of disruption to the preparation for the game.

FWIW I am delighted with a draw. A bit more composure in the first half and we would have won it. With a fully fit Pryce and Eastmond, it would have been an emphatic victory.

That looked like Potter's Saints. We were clueless close to the line, and effectively relied on offloads and individual acts of genius. The actual passing moves were truly painful to watch, being slow and entirely one-way, making it easy for the Wigan defence. We only have one player who can actually manufacture a move to break the defence, and that's Pryce. Without him, we rely on other teams making mistakes. Fortunately for us, the pies made just enough mistakes tonight. I think tonight showed convincingly that if it comes down to it, better to spend the cash on Pryce than on Eastmond.

With a fully fit Richards/Fielden/Roberts/Deacon it wouldn't have been

The Saints pressure over the first 3/4 of the game wore Wigan out and so they had to resort to holding down / lying on and general spoiling tactics which (quite rightly) resulted in penalties to Saints.
After a dodgy start Saints could and should have won it.

CONRATS SAINTS. Never thought I'd bring myself to say that haha. Don''t know why though because I were pulling for you lot.

I am genuinely pleased you got something out of the game, one because you bursted Wigans bubble, and two because you deserved to get back into it after that balls up concerning the drop out.

The only bubble that burst today was yours!

Nice to know you were 'pulling'

Yes, devastated that we went down 28-18 with about 13 men left available. Not as bad as losing a 16-0 lead with 15 minutes to go with apparently "the best defence in the league".

and you should have never been in a position for your second, when eastmond chipped and clearly knocked on, instead given against hoff. refs make mistakes. you had pryce and perry out, 2 key players, we had no pat, amos, finch, fielden. both sides look strong, and after the games so far are the teams to beat this year.

'Bursted' thats not even a word !!!!! thought the eastmond knock on that led to saints second try balanced that bad call by silverwood !!!

Get shut of Eastmond NOW!!!! He is taking the pi** I can name 5 good players Wello, Graham,. Roby, Puletua and Soliola. The rest are taking the bloody mick, Stealing a living!!!!

Tad harsh on the likes of Wilkin, Shenton, LMS etc.

Sorry man. I will make sure all posts from now on are positively FLAWLESS for you. No, not really, the Eastmond knock on was hard to spot and an excusable mistake, the drop out situation however was clear, Wellens had the ball out in the field of play, we all saw that one even without the replays.

Shenton and LMS, I will give us time with them 2, but Wilkin