I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw a completely different saints when they come to town next friday. Our pack will need to be on top from the start, hopefully Wood and Anderson will be back and we dont suffer any injuries tomorrow.
Wigan look like they are getting stronger and stronger just at the right time and a few more defeats could see us lose top spot.

Look at the table. Wigan have played the same number of games as us and are a point ahead, so we've already lost top spot.

In the context of our games against them Saints are still the team I fear the most, and they will be until we beat them five or six times. Obviously by that I don't mean five or six times in a row as that's unrealistic against a top side, but five or six times in maybe ten or so attempts - beat them at the HJ for the first time, win at their new ground, etc - ie start beating them with relative consistency. Our win in February obviously buried the hoodoo, but it'll take more than that to banish the nerves completely in my mind.

Obviously we have to take one game at a time and we play Hull KR tomorrow, but as a test of our winning mentality next Friday is huge for us.

If we play like we did last night you will batter us.

Hopefully we will improve for next week.

Let focus on tomorrows tough game first.

Hull KR is a massive game for us - as it was earlier in the year. Had we not come through in the last few minutes, we would have been going to saints away on the back of 2 defeats

If we lose on Sunday, then we face the prospect of facing saints on the back of 2 defeats

Sunday is massive


Saints will be a different side on Friday - I fully expect Cunningham, Long and Sculthorpe to be fit for this one and would be surprised to see the game go down to a one point ball game.

Mmm, I reckon that Newlove will sneak in to win it at the end.

Lets concentrate on tomorrow, eh....not exactly a happy hunting groung (in the league) for the last couple of visits.
Anyway, for the Stains game, I'm still petrified that Neil Holding will get pole-axed with seconds to go, pretend he's dead, and then go 60m under the posts in the dying seconds, to break our hearts again

And i'm certain that Harry Pinner will get a drop goal or two.

Saints at home doesnt scare me after Wigan flaming grilled em last night!

But our home form this year has been shocking and we need to be really on song for this.

The key to beating Saints is to get Briers to constantly kick high to the wings and our two wingers next friday will have to be Monaghan and King, with their inexperienced lightweights Foster and Makinson they won't be able to cope with the ariel presence.

I think Wigan's style of play is perfect anti-Saints methodology. Aggressive defense, numbers in the tackle, slow the play the ball to remove Roby from the game and do the basics well with the ball. Warrington can do that better than Wigan if they play it that way. Position is enough these days against Saints as we're not strong enough to defend the line as some of the farcical tries Wigan scored proved (Mossop, Lima and Finch).

But if there was a strong refereeing performance that cut out the obvious attempts to slow the play the ball down there is still enough quality to beat Warrington.

Won 5 and lost 3, with 2 of those loses only having 2 points in them.

4th best home form overall, top on points scored and 2nd on least points conceded at home, how is that shocking.

Stats don't tell the full story though. The two games with two points in it we played pretty poor. The Hull game was poor and we were fortunate to get the win against Hull KR.

Shocking might have been a bit strong but we are either hot or cold at home this season with nothing in between.

I must say, that assessment is spot on.

Tomorrow is huge for us before we start to look at the Saints game ! It will be a real toughie. I think the way we have been playing this season (both defensively and offensively), it shouldn't be that much of a problem, as it could have been. The man who works everything for K R is Dobson. I think that we will boss that aspect of the game, in the kicking respect. Should be a real physical and scrappy contest, but I think we will come out winners.

And ironically the slowing down of the play the ball was first perfected by Saints in the late 90s, early 00s, with the 123 1 player off, 123 another off etc which Referee's couldn't actually penalise. It was a perfect technique and Saints executed it phenomenally and gave the defensive line ample time to get set up.

As you said though Hudds, Wigan and Warrington now control the pace of the game well - a far cry from the Cullen era where teams used to snatch quick PTB's for fun.

I think we just need to start in a similar fashion to the game at the Stobart. A 10pt lead into halftime and I'd be very happy. And after Makinson and McCarthy-Scarsbrook's performances last night, they look the very weak links.

Makinson played well, it was just the one kick for Richards were he let himself down! But even top wingers would fail there in taking that!

Build-up to that was poor also, buried into his own in-goal I think.

And against someone like Monaghan, he'll have a tough evening.

My sentiments exactly.

Must admit I'm more concerned with that winger of theirs, Tom Van Vollenhoven. Got a great try scoring record and if Joel isnt fit we might have a bit of trouble with him. I dont think Rhys Williams is up to containing him so we may have to get Matt king to switch wings.

Thoughts ???