is it just me or does this feel like saints may be finished -cunningham long and wigan are just starting up again smith tomkins etc.?

We can only hope.

Its only one win for us and a loss for them, lets not jump the gun.

Salary cap image rights fiasco rumbled. The mythical level playing field exposed as a sham. An ageing Wellens, Long & Fat Bob. Pryce, a speeding rap away from 18 months inside, global recession putting their stadium plans on a permanent hold. Yes, they are fooked.

Time for the natural order.

Steady On,,,You won ,Just enjoy it,Have a few beers,Wake up in the morning with a big hangover and concentrate on Wakey next week...

Not quite meltdown at Stains but I think they have been knocked off their self-obsessed perch in the last 2 weeks. Some of their main stars are starting to fade - some quite rapidly (Longy) - but we still have a way to go to catch them up.

Work in progress

Stains are not finished they will bounce back but they have gone backwards.

We still have a lot of work to do.

Theres a new era about to start in the next year or 2 no doubt about it but instead of Cunningham and Long vs ourselves it's going to be Graham, Roby, Pryce, Clough, Eastmond and Co taking on Lockers, Hock, J Tomkins, S Tomkins, Ainscough and the likes.

It promises to be a few years worth of good battles and thats what the derby needs.

I thought Longy was one of their best players, to be honest.

That said, Saints were well off-beam. You can't help wondering if all the pre-match chat about how crap the Magic Weekend is might have distracted them a little.

I've also heard rumours that Potter doesn't see eye-to-eye with several senior Saints players. Whether this is his fault or their fault, who knows, but it could be causing problems in the camp.

In 94, Wigan continued to underpeform until they finally stopped listening to John Dorahy, at which point they creamed the rest of the league. I doubt Potter's anything like as bad as Dorahy, so a player revolt might be more difficult to organise. Which, from our POV, is surely a good thing. : )

Is it me or do they not seem invincible under Potter as they did under Anderson?

When we were about 16 0r 18 in front the saints of old would have looked like springing a comeback, now under Potter they were dead and buried.

Add to that Long usually rips us to shreds, he didnt get a look in. Maybe because he is ageing as with Wellens and Cunningham.

The worm has turned.

When are they due to get stung for this?? I don't want this feeling of elation to end just yet, and the announcement of a fine/points docking for Stains may just give me one of those total body orgasims that the 'Yogic flyers' have.

It sounds like the end of an era over on the stains board. If you want a laugh have a read at some of their posts. They have come up with every excuse know to man.........except the fact that we where awesome on Satuday night and gave them a lesson in RL.
It's been a long time coming but very enjoyable now. Their cup game against Les Cats will be very interesting now.

For me, they simple didnt look that bothered about losing the game. There was no rushing to scrums when they got within 20 points. The ethusiasm just wasnt there for them.

I'm not sure that the fine/points is really the big concern. The tax owing + interest could be a very big number for any club, especially one paying the biggest wages. Add into the economic downturn, existing debts and any fall off in fan numbers as a result of the on pitch games it could be a very bad outlook for the club.

You never know, the players could be looking at big tax bills that the club can't/won't help them with and so getting the hump.

The concern is just how far reaching this is in the sport, there could be a large number of clubs with a black hole in their finances.

A real shame that's not in Perpi. As it is I think they'll have no problem with Les Cats who are travelling poorly this year.

When was the last time you saw saints get caught on the 5th tackle, it happened twice on saturday, first one hargreaves, second one cunningham.

That's because the intensity and application of the Wigan defence was the best I have seen in a long time.

Is this now the end of the "sliding defence"?


Very much a "blitz" defensive system.

Partly i agree, but saints should have not given hargreaves a ball for a drive on the last tackle. They lost count.

Yes they did on that incident.

Don't be sucked into this "Stains had a bad day at the office" stuff though.

Make no mistake they turned up for the game. Wigan simply didn't allow them to play.

Is it the end of an era ? I am not so sure but we have now proved to have the beating of them on two occasions this season, they got out of jail on Easter Thursday but we made sure that wouldn't happen this time.

What I am more sure of though is that there is a side capable of winning something in there - For me Fielden is the key to the rest of the season - If he ups his game like he did on Sat on a more consistent basis then I think we could go a long way.

Not a chance Saints are finished, Long was still one of their better players and will carry on for another year. Last month it was sack Noble, this month we're the next force in SL.

We're definately building to a good finish this year, we'll be stronger still in 2010.

Anyone noticed at half time when the cameras went to the changing rooms.Potter was standing in the corner like he wasnt interested or even wanted to be there.

If you didn't know the score you'dve thought Noble was the one trying to rally his team at half time. Potter did nothing.

Didnt look like a coach in control of his team did it.

I think it is a bit early to say that it is the end of an era but Peter Snow's swing-ometer would be showing a swing to the right just now but not quite indicating a full election victory quite yet. We have won a significant by-election but not quite back in power with a safe majority. But after supporting Wigan for over 40 years I really believe that things are on the upturn. Lets hope Saints continue to hang on to their ageing stars.