swap Salford mouth for social media and you've nailed it.

I think a lot of Wires only watch Wire when they watch Warrington play. Honestly, watch the whole game. Both teams, that game was out of this world. Both Wigan and Wire were on fire tonight and there is nothing you could take away from either team if the other had won. Upsetting.... Yes. However I feel privileged to have watched that game live. A great spectical of a game at full intensity for a full 80 minutes.

Great game of Rugby League.

I'd rather it was an awful game and we won.

It's always pride and there's always next season!!! Er let's start a winning mentality shall we and maybe like Wigan we will turn an average side into trophy collectors! Wane is an illiterate buffoon yet still he manages to get the better of Smith for the fourth time on the trot! Turn into winners wire and put an end to this well respected loser nonsense! Should've won for the past three years! We must win one!!

Totally agree with Sally's post (for once) and yours.

I've only been following Rugby League and Warrington for four years, almost all of you go back further than me. But what we saw tonight was just an amazingly tense and competitive game of rugby. I grew up with RU and I don't trash it but very few RU games can match that for the level of excitement, it was a truly great game. And playing away with an injury-affected squad we lost extremely narrowly to a team which has a full strength squad playing at home and which I'm pretty sure will go on to win the Grand Final rather more easily than the way they beat us tonight. If there's a tinge of disappointment it's that we didn't capitalise on the "meaningless" rounds to finish in a position where we didn't have to play Wigan until the final.

The game as a whole has loads of problems, the falling attendances alarm me and baffle me, but I remember last year thinking we'd never have a good a chance again to win a Grand Final, and yes, we haven't done it but if you'd told me a year, or six months ago, that we'd be fighting for a place in the GF with four minutes to go in the semi I'd have been delighted

This could so very nearly been your night and your season. The margins are that fine. Every Wigan fan had this down as the toughest fixture. You're not that far off pal.

We'll probably get turned over next week in one of those rank outsiders has nothing to lose scenarios.

I'd rather watch us play entertaining and honest in defense rugby trying different things here and there and always nearly winning a final than watch robotic same old same old Wigan Rugby with their sly tackling defensive techniques. If that's what you need to do to win a grand final then I'm ok with being a nearly team for now. It'll happen one day and we'll win it our way. The way Warrington has always played.

Gutted but proud, can't really fault anyone on or off the pitch tonight. Great effort and hopefully we'll come back stronger next year. Oh warry warry.

2014....... a year when I expected very little at the start ended with 2 semi-finals. 8 montsh ago I would never have believed that.

After our start to the season, still being in with a shout of the grand final with 3 minutes to go is quite brilliant. Thought that considering Wigan were an extra 7 days fresher than us and we kept them to such a low score after all that pressure is a testament to us at the back end of this season, and we did it with 16 men for over half the game. Couldn't help knowing that if we'd had Briers on the field in those last ten minutes he'd have kicked every one of those drop goals, Wigans and all.

Hopefully by next season Smith will know what his HB combination will be. Still need one though. Bridge has been a revelation since he moved there, but he's starting to get a few injuries now. We've got Clark to move us around the field and a big b*****d in Sims upfront.

Along with the new structure, it's going to be a pretty interesting season and one I'm thoroughly looking forward to.

Oh, and as for this season, I don't think we bottled it, I don't think it was our glorious chance to win it, you hear the same s**t from Saddened and FlexWheeler year on year on year and it's just beyond boring now. This season has exceeded my expectations, never expected to be a game away from the Grand Final or the Challenge Cup final. I could be massively gutted, I could me in a foul mood and not wanting to speak to anyone all weekend, but I'm not, I'm more proud than anything. No point wallowing over what if's, season is over now. Revert to being an England fan for the Four Nations, and then onwards to the 2015 season!

Anyone actually annoyed with the team cos we haven't won the GF this year should just buy a Pie shirt for next season.

Give me a choice between:
- doing the double and getting backtoback GF wins but sitting in a silent stadium and leaving on or before the hooter, even when we win
- or win a few CC's and fall just short now and then but play class rugby league and have a set of passionate, vocal fans that love their team more than life itself.

I know which one I'd choose. Every time.

We aren't going to win it for a while yet, and I'm perfectly okay with that. We'll win it eventually by playing our way.

2 semi finals in a "transitional" year is more than I expected. Oh and this was an actual transition year, not any of this "we haven't got any class players or won anything since 2008 so we're still in transition" nonsense.

Yes I say that with no shame the man's a mongrel.. But we got bullied and having grown up watching those guys in my avatar Wire never got bullied. .... ever.

It seems I'm the same age as your father so a comment is required. Wire have won lots of trophies over the years. 1950s we were very strong with Gerry Helme, Brian Bevan and Co, but I never saw that side as I'd just been born. 1974 was a very special year, but the Wire team of the last five years has been a different animal altogether. After 1954 we faded away, and after 1974 we faded away again. Every time we looked to be building a side that would compete year-in-year-out we lost key players : Andy Gregory, Greg Mackey, Ian Potter, Iestyn Harris, Phil Ford, Paul Sculthorpe, to name but a few. At the end of the 1990s we even had to scrap the youth teams to save money ( either that or go bust ). We never competed consistently though we won the odd thing now and again. This 21st Century Warrington club has a far more robust vibe, with a secure financial structure, good youth policy, success and reputation enough to attract star players and on the field genuine competitors every week. It's painful to lose semis and finals, but better to lose them ( even a lot of them ) than be where Wire has been for most of the last 40 years: nowhere near them. We used to go into games against Saints, Bradford, Leeds, Wigan etc hoping, but knowing deep down that we could never match them. Now we go into all these games realistically expecting to win. It's not so long ago that we routinely did not make the play-offs at all!

Wire are in a good place. Don't knock it.

Never of believed it, really? You managed to beat widnes and castleford to get to a semi final. Massive well done. Challenge cup, you managed to fight your way past hull kr Doncaster and Bradford; massive well done!

You're making out like you've got a team of kids that are making their debut season. Small club mentality.

Agreed its a transitional year from your star studded golden oldies team that peaked in 2011/2. But remember wigan lost one of their best players in their recent history, Tomkins, a former Man of Steel, Pat Richards and strong players Harrison Hansen and Lee Mossop. And are bringing through kids like Burgess, Bateman, Sarginson, Powell. Transitional year for ourselves.

No way Wire bottled anything. Sometimes in big games you just come out on the wrong side of the scoreline. We had it thrown at us in 2012 yet came back to win the double.

You'll be stronger next year for sure.

I wish I supported an also-ran club

.

Great effort last night, just lacked a little composure in the final quarter.

You’ll definitely miss Monaghan but Clark is a fantastic replacement & Sims is a brute.

Cannot believe the negativity. We have only been at a competitive level for five years. Some people have short memories.

You do make a point somewhere in your typical Wigan fan belittling attitude of a post. (Thanks for those "massive well done"s since one of those sides knocked you out of the CC at your own ground!)

At last night's game, Wigan had six players gone since last year's Grand Final and Wire had eight. This has been a transitional year for both Wigan and Wire. And it wasn't just fringe players neither. Some of the best players in both clubs' histories left. Yet I reckon we're still the best two sides in the competition. And there was basically nothing between us last night, Wigan had a bit more power and pace and a better kicking game and that was it.

Makes you wonder what the hell the likes of Huddersfield are doing when they actually strengthen a LLS team and go backwards, and Leeds who strengthen a champion experienced side and have a terrible SL season. Maybe it was just a one off season for Leeds and they did win the Challenge Cup (which is a great feeling and maybe it was their season goal after the five final losses in the past). They were some scenes at Wembley when they won.

But what about Huddersfield? If there was a season to go and win it, it was this one. Saints have had injuries all season, Wire lose Briers Morley Hodgson Carvell (four leaders and excellent players, two Wire legends, a RL legend) Cooper (on fire in the NRL), as well as the likes of those you mentioned Wigan lost, neither club replaced those players with similar big name signings; Hudds and Leeds strengthen and don't capitalise. Cas and Catalan took greater advantage of the others' depletions than those two.
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I expected nowt for us this season. We reached the semis of the CC and Play-offs, and went on a run of ten wins on the bounce. I think we beat every team bar Wigan over the season and we matched Wigan in two away games and were within 4 points in both, both could have gone either way. I thought we'd struggle to make the 8 at the start of the season.

Overall, although I'm gutted to lose last night's game, I'm quite pleased with our season. We exceeded my expectations. Can't complain at that.

What a gracious post.

It's kinda true though. The original sentiment behind the thread was ''hey look at us, look how well we've done and this is our transition''.

That post was just pointing out you could apply the same logic to wigan. They are going to be champions in their transitional season. So transitional seasons are another thing warrington are also rans at.

Also rans...Leeds fan...hmmm

I never understand when people say "such and such a team will NEVER have a better chance".

How do you know what will happen in the future? Things change more than you could expect in sport.

For how many years did we hear that when we would play Saints and they would have Long, Wellens and Scully injured and we would hear, if you can't beat Saints this time you will NEVER beat them. But we beat them quite often these days and the fact we lost those games in 2004, 2005 etc doesn't seem to have much bearing on the outcome?

I wonder if you could get a time machine back ten years to our first season in the HJ and say OK here are some predictions for the next ten years, Warrington will sign Andrew Johns, Adrian Morley will lift three Challenge Cups in a Warrington jersey, Man City will win two Premier League titles, Liverpool and Chelsea will win Champions Leagues and Englands cricketers will win four Ashes series.

Who would have been predicting those events...?

Can you tell us about your 2009-2013 transition seasons?

Saints made some major finals in that time and whilst it was obviously a shock to their system that they lost so many great players and were struggling to find the right combinations, they still did quite well with an unsettled and inexperienced team and some coaching changes.

So I think Saints should get credit for how they managed their "down time" and if they win the Grand Final this year it will be a huge achievement as they are still in "down time" as their own fans will admit.