Hearing the flute song now is like being at a family ' do ' and having a naughty nephew telling the smutty joke he heard his Dad tell

Everybody laughs the 1 st time he tells it because it was funny

Problem is he then keeps on telling it all night to get a laugh again , whereupon it just becomes more and more embarrasing

Nobody from the bottom of the north stand was joining in today , thankfully

Hang on a bit here I know we struggled a bit but if anyone had looked at the program 8 of the players are squad members not there acadamy side so stop moaning and start supporting.

I don't sing the flute song anymore but I've got no problem with anyone that does. I don't think it's particularly appropriate but they sing plenty of other things that are just as inappropriate.

You go to any football match these days and you'll things as bad if not worse and they just go over people's heads. There will always be a minority that sing or shout certain things but they pay their money and thats up to them.

I'll admit to swearing a bit when things are going against us but I wont be the first or last to do that lol

Struggled a bit


We where drowning in a sea of despair watchin that display

My personal thoughts on the game today. We went 10-0 in front. They came back to 10-10. They gained confidence and were fighting to save their reputation. (Wi*an) (Two years without a defeat I heard) Their confidence soared in attack and defence. They were well drilled and had an excellent kicker at No.6 They made the halfway line with ease and kicked and chased with the enthusiasm of highly skilled professionals. they are the talent of the future with a never say die attitude. We had so many attempts thwarted by them in great defence I lost count.I actually enjoyed the game. Well done to both sides for a hard fought game but I do think Wi*an deserved a draw at least for their enthusiasm and effort (especially in their defence) These kids from Wi*an will be the stars of the future and some are already on professional contacts for Wi*an. They are trying to get a place in a SL team and that showed today. A win I'll take over Wi*an anyday and I'd have any of those players at my club on dual contracts.

One of the reasons I dont go to football matches any more

the flute song is dated. Needs replacing!

I just ignore it if I don't want to listen to it... it's the only way

I do ignore it , but I can still hear it and I am still embarassed by it

Well after saying I wouldn't part with 14quid for a U21 / pre season game I did.
Odly enough I wasn't as disgusted as most others (thus far) with the display.
We should be beating a W!gan youth team if we had a good squad, but I'm sure Basil knows we havn't got a good squad.
We are a relegated team and it will take time to get some confidence up and for them to understand plays, currently sideways running and 1 man forward play (that doesn't see a tackle broken) are a follow on from last season, we are badly lacking in many departments but most of all its obvious they have hardly played any RL for a while (or i'd guess had any decent training sessions due the weather).
Once we did miss out a man and avoid the one man drive we looked better, Basil isn't known for coaching 1 man RL but he also cannot work miracles.
Today Robbie Paul made a few breaks looking for the inside ball to offload - nobody there, that needs working on as Robbie isn't the fastest man in the world.
Forward wise we need Bibey in the team ASAP as we largely look lightweight, Chris Hill tried as usual but didn't have much success.
Discipline did seem to be better than last season but still too many given away.

We did miss a hatful of opportunities and I suppose thats the positive, Duffy looked unfit gave away a try but just how many games as he played lately, the reason for the game was to get the players matchfit / working as a unit.

One minor critiscm of the coaching team, appeared to be too many subs used today, should have gone for 20 min spells if your intent on trying things out as TBH I can't imagine the coaching team will learn much about fitness / concentration levels if they are taking people on & off (that said we've already lost 1 pre season game to trial idea's out so I suppose today was the last chance).

I thought the atmosphere in the 2nd half was good (Makes a change from the usual 'library' atmosphere we have at home games), decent following for the Pies , all in all I thought more than 3,500+ plus was on but who cares, its gate receipts that matter (although that car park was a mare to get off after the game for a crowd circa 1,300 larger than some games last year



).
One query, noticed a turnstile to the North stand saying cash payment, usually i'm pre occupied on a matchday but is this a first (with apologys to all if its been covered pre game as I've not read every thread).

Considering the 'cost' to get on and the less than fantastic display I actually enjoyed it today, lets be honest we don't beat many W!gan teams these days so today is a positive.

I'm not sure I watched the same game as the rest of you.... how many times did we hold them for a set of six in their own half? Behind their own 30 sometimes too.... not the sign of a bad defensive team? OK, we still need some go forward, but even there we had our moments. We could have scored another 20 if we'd not made stupid errors - Stanton was screaming for the ball at one point in the second half and would have been away with it, Nanyn got selfish, we got taken into touch how many times?
Lots of positives, but we really do need more power up front, until we get that we're going to struggle in the middle of the table.
Stanton should have got MOM for me, always looking, always active, and he looks a right bugger to tackle!

Having said all that, I feel sorry for Oldham next week, I suspect we'll tear them to bits.

And a win over Wigan is a win over Wigan, no matter how you look at it!

10-0 and we went to sleep, never seen the marker take the ball from the acting half before he passed it before

Bombed a couple of walk ins second half and scored when we needed to.
Saw enough in the first 20 to be confident, although Higson must start in the centre and Armistead dropped.

Yeah I don't really 'get' Armitstead as a player. Don't see him as a 13 but more as a prop. But he wouldn't be in our 1st 4/5 props if they were all fit. He takes a lot of drives in and tackles well but he tends to do 1 or 2 stupid offloads in the tackle EVERY week which is pretty frustrating

Army actually played a good deal of that game as a prop, he had to as we didn't have enough of them wearing shirts today.

Fantastic till we went 10-0 up. Next hour was spent trying to warm my hands back up. then the last 5 mins were thrilling. W*gan played well IMO, and tested our defence well. As for the flute song - WHY do the 'fans' insist on singing it?????

My big bugbear is as to why the turnstiles were so bl**dy slow ....

we must use our wings more instead of one man rugby could have scored 3 or 4 more with open play

That was in February 2007. Only two of yesterday's Wigan team played in that game.

Really??

He does try but got a LOT to learn, he always seems to be heading for a gap but then steps in towards the tackler?!?!

I thought we did pretty well on Sunday.

LAst year we were dreadful....
haemoraging penalties, trying to score off evey play, daft off loads, clueless in fromnt of the try line.

Yesterday, i thought we had more structure, varied play and playing in a fashion our players could deal with. When we got near the try line, we looked liked we knew what to do, which is a first in 3 years i think.

Not even IM can turn the players from last year into the Harlem Globetrotters in less than 3 months and two games.

I was encouraged by the game yesterday and felt we have improved in important areas.

The flute song is just unedifying for all concerned.

Well it certainly stimulates my anger that the club don't come out and publiclly distance themselves from it.

The game as a whole Paul I have to agree with you. There are some good signs coming from what I have seen. I love the way we seem to have improved the quick passing. We were stiffled by the young Wigan lads moving up quick and thats a lesson that we should learn as we seem to have times when we just hold back instead of meeting them at the line of srummage. That was a massive part of our game when IM was here last. Not too depressed about yesterday as has been said these Wigan players are future SL players and maybe internationals. I know it's only two friendlies but I really don't know about Hartley. I personally think Ridy is the better option and am relieved that he has re-signed. On the Wigan team I like the look of their 1, 4 and 8. Congratulations should go out to the Wigan fans also for turning out in such numbers. Well done Pies.

He was finding gaps and no one passed it to him.

Well said that man.

penalty count was 7 - 3, so thats 13 penalties conceded so far in two games, which taken in context over last year is a remarkable improvement.

Couldn't agree more Mr C, especially the last bit.