On way home, gidley needs sitting down for a few weeks, he's carrying an injury and he's virtually a passenger at this point.

I know we've not got anyone else, but I'd rather struggle and get him fit for later

So, reading between the lines of Smith's post match press conference, Brough as "torn us a new un". Quelle surprise

As long as I've been a Wire fan, there's ALWAYS been a half back that we can't deal with.
In the mid/late eighties, it was Derryck Fox
Fast forward a few years, it was Mark Aston (did he EVER have a bad game against us)
There's been many others, too.
Now it's Brough
Why don't we just clatter (legally) or, at least constantly run at/tire them out? Instead, we just give it the "after you, Claude" attitude, and let them take the mick.

You were well beaten by a better side, a side who defended superbly and kicked the life out of you and won every battle going, these things happen sometimes.

Thought we were fantastic and never gave you any space to play, and when we did, you seemed totally clueless, Clark was the only one looking like a threat.

Very pleased with our performance, we haven't been that bad and i had a feeling this was coming.

And fair play to the 1212 Wire fans who came, although they were very quiet after the drummer got bored

i knew there would be a positive to take from tonight's game... hopefully he throws the thing in the mersey

why on earth are we getting in a paddy over losing a game to a team that will beat many a team...for one its not as if the league holds much clout (thanks to the rfl and sky)finish in the top 4 which we will and then contest the comp at the end of season.. who knows we may even make the final at that dump...

Defended well first half but the attacking was dreadful. Awful with the ball in hand and the kicking game wasn't much better. Barely looked like scoring to be honest. Going to try and forget all about it instantly, just hope Clark is ok - our best player by a mile tonight.

I think i recall, although i might have missed it in all the excitement!, that you only got over our line once ,when Evans was bundled out?
I can't remember wire ever threatening our line.

.....because we didn't even look like scoring a single point against the team who are bottom of the table, that's why

TBH the amount of pressure we put you under we should have scored a lot more points which is testament to your defensive effort esp in the first half. We forced about 8/9 dropouts tonight but still only scored 11 points. We've not had a problem scoring this season- it's our defence that's been shaky, probably due to all the switches we've been forced to make due to injury- today it just finally clicked unluckily for you. Yes you dropped a lot of ball- but we forced a lot of that by getting into your faces and our scramble defence was brilliant.
Two young props today absolutely played their hearts out and Nathan Mason who's probably played less than an hour at SL level stood up brilliantly to Sims and he disappeared after that.
When I saw the weather forecast I thought we were doomed when I saw the forwards you had named in your side, I wonder if your players underestimated our pack.
Just unfortunate for you that the sleeping giant awoke today - it's the first time we've played for the full 80 this season.

Mason also stood up to Hill, who had his usual paddy!
Forwards really stepped up to the plate tonight.

As has often been mentioned... Smith does not coach attack he relies on the players to find solutions.

All very well when we had Briers, Hodgson and Monaghan.

I dont think Hudds were all that...i thought we beat ourselves with the most inept attacking display I've seen since Wigan nilled us.

They had a ridiculous amount of possession and only put 11 on us, the didn't really defend well, we didn't have the ball that much or threaten them to really test that defence.
Gidley was awful, Atkins still persists in F@×%* stupid offloads when they're not on.
Hughes offered little, and Russell needs to do some yoga, stiffer than viagra laced Whiskey.

I must say i didn't go last night but it sounded very painful on the wireless & i got to a stage where i was praying for the match to end. I can't say that we offered anything in attack apart from rushed plays & the amount of dropped ball that we came to expect last season. We have said before that when Briers didn't play the team struggled & we are now finding the same with Sandow. It was obvious that Brough was going to kick us to death tonight so what measures were put in place by the coaching staff to take the game to Huddersfield? A team performance should have been worked on but it seems that without a certain playmaker we are no better than last season. One meaningful attack on the Huddersfield line is ridiculous.
No doubt if the going gets really tough in the weeks ahead R.Agar will be touted as first team coach to take the flack.

TS bad mouthed Brough about 4 or 5 seasons ago, defending McDonut and his decision not to select Brough for England half back, once again playing a loose forward instead.

Brough rammed those comments back down his trap tonight.

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... r-scotland

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... r-scotland

Nil to the side at the bottom! Is a wheel coming off the wire bandwagon? Nah, it was probably just a virus.

When Wakefield stick 62 on us not 11 we'll be worried

Brough already knew he wasn't going to get selection over yet another loose forward playing half back.
TS gobs off and Brough gives his two fingered response on the field every year since.

Funny enough, i disagree!
I thought we were superb at times and tactically brilliant, kicking early, and long and watching your big forwards still trundling back 2 plays later, using the wet conditions superbly, and defending like demons, something that has cost us games this season, and to be fair Wire's defence was good at times too, i think there was 2 or 3 occasions you managed to turn our players on their backs over the line.

You didn't attack well because we didn't let you, we were off the line and in your faces which caused panic and without a good kicking game like we had, were unable to make anything of it.

Was a good old fashioned slog though and i enjoyed it!

We didn't attack well because you didnt let us?

I forgot all the times we dropped the ball...under no pressure what so ever, when we did manage to string a pass together we made lots of metres, probably 10m per carry, you didn't defend especially well apart from the holding Rhys up over the line, we couldn't have unlocked a cattle gate last, every time the line beckoned we fluffed it, you had set after set on our line due to Broughs pin point kicking, you spent the majority of the game in our half due to our ridiculous error rate.
But sorry you weren't that good, two poor teams out there last night.
We were clueless in attack...similar to last year, something Smith has never addressed. He lets the players play what they see...with Briers, M.Monaghan, Hodgson, Sandow that works, but without them we are completely without an idea, we don't have the set plays that other teams have, we looked pedestrian, we were walking it in a lot of times and devoid of all ideas.

We beat ourselves, you were nothing special.

I'm not being arrogant, i usually fire praise where it is due, with the ball you had you should have scored minimum 30 points, but you were also a poor team.
Without Brough last night that could have been nil nil.
Similar to his Wakefield days, pulling a s**t team through by just himself.

Oh ok then, we won cos you kept dropping the ball and didn't play like champions elect?? , fair enough, i must have watched a different game then.

I'm with you, Meast. Walking down to the stadium (after falling over on a grassy gnol) I said that we needed to play a patient game; force the restart, keep hold of the football and don't feel the need to score at the end of every set.

Unfortunately, Anderson had similar thoughts where as we just didn't play to the conditions. I'm sorry, Ratchford, but booting the football into the air and hoping for the best won't get you anywhere. I'm not quite sure why, but Warrington have rarely played well in the rain under Mr Smith!

Sadly last night was like rolling the clock back 12 months, but we should take nothing away from the Giants who played the conditions perfectly.

Wow- stay off the lemon drops.
The reason you dropped so much ball in the second half was because you were tired and panicked. You were tired because we slaughtered you in the first half on possession and territory. Our large amount of possession and territory in the first half was not due to you turning the ball over (that was in the second half) - it was due to us keeping it and forcing repeat sets. Kicking deep and defending very well, Rapira and Johnson got quick ptbs and had your big guys back-pedalling constantly.we wore you out.. You panicked when you realised we were scrambling so well and were throwing passes that weren't on. Our youngsters stepped up to the likes of sims and Westwood and didn't allow themselves to be bullied.
Your players probably were a little off the boil- but I think we forced a lot of that by how we played in the first 20 minutes.

Obviously you did, how hard is it to defend one up rugby or a team that when they throw it out wide drop it.
A championship team would have kept us out last night, Gidley was awful, Ratchford is not a halfback, a conversation that has been had many a times on this forum.
We ended up with the 5 drives and kick rugby, obviously not getting to 5 that often due to a frankly pathetic and clueless attack.

Tell me what you did special in defence? Seriously what?
How often did you scramble? How often did you slide under pressure? Tell me what was so special about us driving down the middle and your guys numbering up?