I think our pack will respond on Friday, really looking forward to it, winning will put a marker down for the rest of the season.

I wish I could get that sort of faith back, but of late I've been finding it a lot easier to expect the worst.

+1

I know what you mean - sure the clowns on SKY will blame Wigan's injuries if we win , or spend 80 mins sounding like RG drooling over their youth if we lose

Oh aye, that deafening DW home crowd

Noisy or not. Home advantage always has a say. Up to Wigan fans. To. Make the most of it.

I expect you lot to turn us over, after all you are better than the 1968 New York Jets on paper

to be fair, the '68 jets are getting on a bit now

Charnley could be the next messiah to resurrect in time for tomorrow too, so a fella on the Pie board says.

Taken from the Wigan forum:

Provisional team:

Bowen
Burgess
Sarginson
Gelling
Charnley
Powell
Smith
Flower
Williams
Dudson
Hughes
Bateman
O'Loughlin

Doran
Crosby
Taylor
James

Yep. He is now named in the squad I've just read an article on line. I always knew they would be more or less full strength, they have no more missing than us. If he thinks we believed all his injury woes hype he must be thick. COYS I would rather face a strong Wigan team as a win would mean more.

More or less full strength? We have Thornley, Green, McIlorum, Farrell, Clubb, Pettybourne, Goulding, and Hampshire all missing, all who would be in my full strength 17 barring a toss up between Thornley and Goulding. Not to mention Tomkins who is also unavailable through injury who would also make it.

More or less full strength though. Ok.

What a coincidence; all the lads who are missing would make your 17.

No doubt if Sarginson, Dudson, Powell, Hughes were all injured then they'd make your 17 too.

It's not the worst Wigan team but I wold hardly call it a strong one. We have Jordan James and a 19 year old making his debut (squad no.42) on the bench.

I fail to see why you call it 'injury woes hype'. He's told the truth all week. He said Powell, O'Loughlin and Charnley were all doubtful. The only person added who wasn't in the original 19 is Charnley. Why would he want to 'big up' our injury situation? He has never used injuries as an excuse in any game and do you really think he would if we lost a derby? He expects any team he puts out to win.

Anyway, if you win tonight it will be well deserved as you know Wigan always turn up for the derby with Wane in charge. I think you may just edge it tonight.

Of that list only McIlorum, Farrell and Green would get in to your first choice 17, and Farrell isn't injured. We match that with Amor, Lomax and Laffranchi, all of whom would be in our first choice 17, and we don't yet know whether Swift is back fit so we could add him too, and he would be in our first choice 17.

Wane's talking garbage as usual and we all knew he was. But that's ok because if we win then neither Wane nor the Sky crew can make injuries as the excuse for you lot losing.

Out of our likely 17 tonight Sarginson, Williams, Hughes, James, Doran and Dudson are not first choice. They would be replaced with Thornley or Goulding(at least one of these would start they are squad no's 3 & 4), McIlorum, Farrell, Clubb, Green and Pettybourne.

It's not the worst side we've ever fielded but it's not a strong Wigan team.

Quite common to hear coaches speak of out-enthusing the opposition. Out-excusing the opposition seems to be the order of the day on here

Funny that when compared to some of the comments on the Gelling thread on your board, such as:

"I really like Gelling, I'm made up he's getting his chance. It does leave me wondering where this leaves Goulding though with Gelling and Sarginson seemingly nailing the centre spots."

You've barely got any more injuries than Saints.

Would the 2005 team below of 75-0 beat this current team above?
Wigan: Gleeson, Dallas, Aspinwall, Wild, Carney, Brown, Moran, Seu Seu, Newton, Sculthorpe, Allen, Tickle, Beswick.
Replacements: Hansen, Godwin, Guisset, Hargreaves.

It is not fair bringing that up, don't you know we are in denial about that score.

You won't find many Wigan fans saying Sarginson has nailed down a centre spot. His defence is suspect and most think he's better as a full back or winger. He's a back-up utility player who can cover a few positions and doesn't make the strongest 17. Thornley scored 9 tries in 8 matches before he got injured no way he would have been dropped the form he was in.

If it comforts you to believe you're facing a strong Wigan side tonight then that's fair enough.

To be fair first choice centres on current form or form before they were injured would be Thornley and Gelling. It also seems that they are next years first choice pairing. If you were to go on squad numbers it would be Goulding and Thornley. Sarginson is definitely NOT first choice at this stage although he is first reserve utility back.

Definitely out are Mcllorum, Farrell, Pettybourne, Clubb, Green, Thornley who would definitely be in the first choice 17, plus Goulding, Crosby and Hampshire who would be first reserves. We also don't know the O'Loughlin situation as the last couple of times he has been named in the 19 he didn't make the field. Bateman has a sternum injury but is playing. Obviously the wisdom of that will soon become clear.

Whether that constitutes a crisis or not is open to personal interpretation. I am wiling to bet, though, that if we took the equivalent players out of the Saints team and put 4 or 5 of ours back in to the team you'd be saying we had an undoubted advantage going into the game. What's more, you'd be absolutely right.

FWIW (can't be bothered replying to you all individually, Wigans strongest 17 on paper would be:

Bowen
Charnley
Goulding/Thornley
Gelling
Burgess
Green
Smith
Taylor
McIlorum
Flower
Farrell
Tomkins
O'Loughlin

Bateman
Clubb
Pettybourne
Hampshire

That's 9/17 of those unavailable tonight.

Jack Hughes, Gil Dudson and Sam Powell would not make the team over any of those players, Sarginson possibly but he hasn't nailed down a particular position as of yet as others seem to be edging him out in each one.

Safe trip over.

How good was Anthony Gelling tonight? Lol...