I'm suprised at the negativity being shown after last night's game. For once, I thought there were genuine signs of improvement.

Clearly a lot of work still needs to be done, but to keep Wigan under the cosh for 40 minutes was good to see despite failing to get any points on the board in the first half.

Bearing in mind, this Wigan team, minus Green, beat Leeds last weekend.

One negative point from me though... I'm confused at the lack of creativity/flair in the final 3rd of the pitch. With the likes of Smith and Chase on the pitch you wouldn't think that this would be a huge problem, but it clearly is.

Onwards and upwards. Keep the faith!

Odd,but true

I agree, a lot better performance looking more like a TEAM

Can anyone see an improvement in our attack since bringing in an attacking coach who people on here rave about? I'm happy for us to give Longy a go in some capacity to help him rebuild his career, but I'm not sure he's the guru he's made out to be on this front.

Trouble is, a coach can teach them and tell them how to perform certain moves. Practice them, refine them. But he has no control over major malfunctions during a game. It's up to the players to be better organised and execute with more professionalism than they are doing.

That's a classic comment,tell me where on the pitch their was any improvement last night....Salford were awful all over the park.

We spent large periods of the first half camped in Wigan territory without troubling the scoreboard, before conceding 25 points in the last 41 minutes of the game. If this is seen as improvement then God help us.

I'm talking about small steps in the right direction, not strides. I thought defensively we were better, although that's not to say we were particularly good.

Personally, I think half the battle at the moment is psychological. That's seven games without a win for a team that had high expectations at the start of the season, with some fans having delusions of Grandeur.

Confidence is a key attribute which is lacking in this squad at the moment, and if we can do our best to encourage and support the players, we have half a chance of getting a few more wins under our belt.

I've got to say, I think one of your biggest reasons for not troubling the score board was Chase. I honestly believe he is extremely overrated. He can do amazing things with the ball in hand, and his work for the Salford try was excellent, but that is no good if the rest of the match he is awful, throwing bad passes and trying to do these tricks and skills that only come off once or twice a match.

I really want you guys to succeed, because I like seeing more good teams in the league, and I do believe you will get there.
If you look at sport, any team that invests big money usually takes a year or two to click.

I do believe that you would benefit greatly from getting Sneyd back if at all possible.

I've had the same thoughts myself recently.

Chase is undeniably world-class when he's having a good one. Trouble is, he doesn't have that many, at least not in a Salford shirt yet. I'm not sure I'd be happy if I was MK. I don't think he's getting enough bang for his buck at the moment.

so when vid ref Thaler awarded a a penalty to Salford for ball ripping when Ashurst was over wigans line ...?

I left the game last night majorly disappointed, yet again. Before the game I was one of a few who thought we would trouble Wigan and in all fairness we should have done. I felt Harris had the tactics spot on, our kicking game started better than it has been all season, we were making yards and then when it came to having the ball in their final third we panicked, lost confidence and the unforced errors all came back. With the amount of ball we had in the first 25 minutes, we should have registered points. I cant work out what the problem is, but one thing is for certain we seem to be forcing it too often when a better option would be to either take the tackle on their line, or put a grubber in and force a repeat set. We seem incapable of building any genuine pressure and rush our attacks.

General defence I saw improvements, we were forcing them back, turning them over and working hard. However defending our line was dreadful yet again. Everytime Widnes got in our 10 they scored got over the white wash last week and Wigan did the same.

Forwards were fantastic again, let down by the backs again. Disappointing to see us picked up injuries to both our centres – where does this leave us? This season just keeps going from bad to worse.

Pretty sure the ref can only give a penalty try for foul play (e.g. high tackle, knees in the tackle) or pulling a player back/tackling a player without the ball.

Not so - From the rules of the game:

Penalty try: The Referee may award a penalty try if, in his
opinion, a try would have been scored but for the
unfair play of the defending team. A penalty try is
awarded between the goal posts irrespective of
where the offence occurred.

All that's needed is unfair play which ripping out clearly is - on reflection I think we wuz robbed!

I have only just had chance to watch the game due to working last night.

I actually thought we looked more structured in the first half and think we were a bit unlucky in places - if the game wasn't on sky our first disallowed try would have been given and maybe that would've helped us kick on and build some confidence, but it was not to be.

It is worrying that we had so much possession and came away with nothing in the first half but I think major credit has to be given to the way the Wigan team defended. You could see how much they wanted to prove everyone wrong and keep us out at all costs. I feel all the teams who play us this year are raising their game against our so-called "superstars" (the Doc hasn't helped this).

There is no chance of us being able to defend our flanks until we have some genuine pace in the backs. As soon as any quick winger or centre gets a small gap they are away and under the sticks! Hopefully the new arrivals for next season will remedy this.

As depressing as it is, I think we need to target specific games to help us stay away from a relegation fight. I can't see us getting anything from Saints next week so the Bradford game is really important. If we lose that I really fear for what could happen!

Still excited for the future of the club, we just need to keep supporting them and keep the faith. God knows I've seen much worse in the past!

Fair enough. I think ripping the ball out must be an exception to the rule though because it's not the first time I've seen it happen and each time a penalty has been given rather than a penalty try.

Thinking back again to the game last night. - we've said numerous times this year about how much we seriously lack pace out wide and that was underlined in the last 10 minutes. Danny Williams made a break that was almost a carbon copy of the one Burgess made at the end of the game. Burgess scored with ease once he was clear, Williams was caught after about 15 or so metres. Looking forward to having a bit of pace in the side next year with the likes of Locke and BJB

With regard to the non penalty try.
We have the laws of the game,but unfortunately under Mr Cummin's reign we had interpretations of laws introduced.
He decreed that a ball steal in the act of scoring would only be a penalty,not as the law says a penalty try.
Remember ball stealing is another interpretation,anyway.
Guess what the current debacle with obstructions is another interpretation,and I am sure it will be scrapped soon,certainly after last nights nonsense.
All in all there are people at Red Hall trying to justify their jobs,and making a right pigs ear of it.

Very interesting though. How many times have we seen players held up over the line by brilliant tackles when the attacker has been attempting to get the ball down. Would the attacker be better served to just relax his grip on the ball to make it look like a steal and get the penalty try?

SEE ABOVE

Williams got a leg injury making a tackle, was limping, struggling for the last 20 minutes. He may be missing next game

Given the injury situation and the 'request' by supporters for immediate,noticeable to all,improvement a request to Leeds for the loan of BJB would be appreciated.
He wasn't in the Leeds 17 last night and with Gleeson also taking a knock on Thursday the right side is depleted.

Evalds & Owen recall for me - as over 1 month their loan arrangement apparently can be rejigged to suit us.

Chase can do things on a Rugby pitch that few others can.

The problem is he blows hot and cold and he's a lone wolf.

From what I saw on Thursday, Harris is trying to install the Wigan set plays. I don't know if Chase is the man to run those from 6 because he's too much of a maverick. He's undoubtedly more talented than Smith/Green/Powell, but they're all going to run the plays as they're drawn up.

Chase is more likely to try to do something magical off the cuff and break down the attacking structure.

It's part of the reason I wasn't too fussed when Wigan didn't go in for him.

Think we have improved a little bit defencely round the middle just edge defence needs sorting