after a game 2 days ago it'd be easy to prove every player had a slight knock of some sort

For turner and Flanaghan - but charnock can't be carrying a knock surely? Grave concerns were gonna see wellens return to 1 now...

Makinson
Galbraith Wheeler Jones Dawson
Wellens Hohaia
Masoe Fozard Forster
Wilkin Greenwood
Walker

LMS Hand Savelio Soliola

Running low on numbers now...

Makinson
Galbraith
Wheeler
Jones
Dawson
Wellens
Wilkin
Walker
Hohaia
Forster
Thompson
Greenwood
LMS

Masoe
Savelio
Soliola
Tilley

Not looking too good for tomorrow. We'll just have to hope that the Widnes players are tired as they seem to be close to full strength. I know we do have to rest players for the Leeds game but we don't exactly want to build up any negative momentum.... I'd have picked a slightly more balanced side I think.

The other consideration is of course the widnes iPitch - the last thing we need is to pick up 10 first choice players picking up knocks before Leeds.

There are the players in that team to win the game, widnes are on their own bad run of form, we just need to not give them easy opportunities (especially in the first minute)

They only have one doubt. The guy who kicks off has a sore foot from Good Friday.


It's a defeat I'm afraid. I predicted 3 losses on the bounce and I still stand by that.

Didn,t go to the away game at Widnes last year, which stand are we allocated the East or West. My ticket says East, Didn,t we always play in the West.

Still enough in that squad to turn Widnes over. Hopefully the young lads will bring some freshness into what seemed like a fatigued side against Wigan.

It'll be a tough ask tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get the win. The youngsters will want to take their opportunity and the likes of LMS, Turner, Wilkin, etc have got a major point to prove. Can anyone share what the team is/might be?

I'm not sure resting players really works, ok it may avoid an injury, but the disruption to the team really doesn't help. Historically, we haven't done well after wholesale changes, I see us putting out a strong team against Leeds and getting stuffed.

Matty Fozard will play unless he gets injured, no idea if he's starting or not.

Maybe in normal circumstances but our last 4 games have been Leeds, Huddersfield, Cas and Wigan. The players need to be fresh and ready to go for Leeds now, and the easter period usually means a drop in standard. Another game 3 days after Wigan and then another game 5 days later is not ideal preparation. Brown hs done the right thing for our chances next week.

Makes sense - we need a hooker and hes a hooker - the only way to know if he'll make it is to play.

It's a bad situation to be in. Despite us winning up to the derby, our performances were declining with every game and that continued in the Wigan game. The game on Monday is going to be a big disruption to the side and it will take an amazing turnaround in form for us to beat Leeds.

Mentally, Wigan were at the races on Friday and we wasn't. We've been fantastic this season and showed great character to win games we would have lost last year. Lets have some faith in the lads, it's one bad defeat, nobody wrote Wigan off when they lost their 2 games. We lose one game and suddenly we're in terrible form. Utter nonsense. They'll grind out a result at Widnes to set up a great contest at Leeds.

Come on you Saints!!!!

Ps I've been drinking.

Resting so many players on Monday, is not the same to resting players for a normal weekly fixture.

Effectively the players will have an 8 day turn around, playing Friday then Saturday at Leeds.

This is not like having a week off and coming back a little rusty. It's just like having a normal fixture list playing once every week.

What I am not sure about is why Makinson is lined up to play. It maybe we have no one else, but then that shows a lack of foresight from the club to let Gardner go so early in the season. One injury and suddenly we are looking at having to play Makinson in a game where he should have his feet up.

We beat Leeds who were just as in form a few weeks ago with a side that no one gave a chance to, not even us. So Leeds are not a team of undeafetables. I do wonder whether Amor and Swift could have played against Wigan but may have been carrying knocks that could have been aggrivated over time.

Would not be surprised in the slightest to see them both play against Leeds and then get dropped again as I've seen nothing anywhere about their injuries???

I think there has been a little OTT reaction on the boards. We are still top of the league and at worst 1 point off the top come the end of tomorrow. A loss was always going to come, as it happens it was a few weeks later than predicted. I know some love to revel in our losses as the bringer of doom, but even in the great years we lost and sometimes lost really badly.

If we where firing on all cylingers the cynics would say we are up too early and the rest of the league are waiting for the important end of the season. Now we have lost some have seen it as an oppertunity to jump in and say we are not a great team.

Quite frankly we are doing a hell of a lot better than we where last year at this time and we are doing better than pretty much most of the teams around us.

Some people love pushing the panic button after one loss. It was a loss get over it, there will be at least 2 or 3 more of those before the end of the season.

Last year Wigan lost 30 points to 12 against a decent Huddersfield side, but that showed as much in the tea leaves as this defeat will do.

We just need to give the team plenty of vocal backing to lift a couple of the unexperienced lads. We still have plenty of experienced players in our team today, Lance whether he plays 1 or 9 is playing fairly well and has more confidence this year. Wilkin and Wello will hold this team together our biggest worry is our defence in the first 20 mins to try and get a hold on the game instead of a catch up one.

We don,t really know if Widnes have had a tough game or a lazy one, I expect a close game with 6 points difference either way.

It's about giving players rests who need rests. Tommy plays wing so not really doing much work. I'm surprised to see Turner rested tbh.

Exactly, can't understand why people have pressed the panic button after one defeat. We have had a tough run of games and an even tougher one this Saturday.

Fair enough if we lose today (probably expected) and get a good hiding on Saturday then it would be understandable.

At the start of the season anybody would av taken 9 from 10 wins at this stage. Total over reaction by some people.

We beat wigan last season simply because they had a cup semi week after which only against London. The leeds game this week plus the 2 difficult fixtures against Hudds and cas had a big say in Fridays result IMO.

Agree turner should be in the team! I'm assuming he was one of the players brown referred to when saying certain players need to step up.

Tommy more than anyone deserves a rest but your right in the fact that his position needs less work rate than most others but I would still protect him from picking up a knock.

I see no reason why any backs needed resting apart from lomax is is all over the field.

Obviously it's more of not getting players injured for next Saturday rather than players needing a rest.

Best post I've read on here or redvee post the Wigan game, bravo sir.

Saturday is the big test for us now, lets see what character this side has.

The reaction isn't about the loss though is it? It's about the manner of the performance, particularly in the second half. 'Gutless' is a word I have read to describe it and I'd say that pretty much summed up the team's so-called efforts in the second half, a total contrast to matches against Cas and Leeds.

This was Wigan, at home, on a glorious day in front of a packed stadium and we were well in the game at halftime. But we just gave up. That's what the reaction is about, not that we lost.

If we take 2 points today then I'll be happy with Easter. Sure enough the team let us, the club and themselves down big time on Good Friday but at the end of the day we can't win every week. It hurts it being against the pies but it's two points lost no matter who it was against.

I can't see us winning today, in fact I think we in for a hammering but a win against Leeds is more important than any Easter games.

If we lose them all, it's a disaster.

At this stage in the season there are only so many high intensity games you can play in a row (particularly when the opposition can target it given an easier run) - minus a few players having stinkers (lms, turner etc) we actually weren't far off (despite the smug superiority from t'other side) there were numerous occasions we had created an overlap/ found a gap etc but individual, unforced errors cost us dear. It was always going to happen eventually.

Also think said smugness has added to the frustration in the reaction from people on here ...