Wane is a darling of the supporters due to being a local, passionate bloke who wears his heart on his sleeve. Everyone has enjoyed watching his rise from helping with the juniors through to coaching them, to assistant first team coach and then on to being the top man.

He needs to be careful he doesn't lose any of that goodwill with gripes about the crowd. I said a couple of weeks back the crowd are there to be entertained and lifted by the players not the other way round. In games like last night people expect to be got out of their seats by fast, free flowing, exciting pressure free rugby and they didn't get that.

Poor from Waney I'm afraid.

2 points in April.... Box ticked.

The crowds wont be any better in New Zealand

Wane blames the fans again ROFL ! He wants to try coaching his team to tackle and not go 10 points behind inside the first 10 minutes then folk might have something to shout ( positively ) about .

For 99% of the game we were awful , no support when we made the break, p poor defence in the first half, we could have easily been 24 0 down if they'd have finished a bit better .

Sorry Shaun but you need to get your own ship in order before you start apportioning blame to who's who pay to watch not get paid to coach .

The game was dire. Wigan never got out of 2nd gear, our ptb's were so s-l-o-o-o-w. The game just lacked any intensity at all.

good friday there will be a brilliant atmosphere and if we perform like we did last we'll get smashed to pieces by Stains. he can't exactly go blaming the atmosphere then.

Even thou we played very badly, London actually outplayed us in the first half, they didn't make a mistake, it was all wigan dropping the ball, throwing it away…

next friday is going to be a very apprehensive day for us.

Very true. But our unforced errors - the only consistent thing about us this season - made life easier for London than it should have been, and gifted them yards of territory.

A chap near me came out with all the usual arguments - games like that don't matter, we'll get out of bed when we play Saints, etc. But if all that's true, it suggests a complacent mindset that is not always easy to throw off.

The laughable thing about this whole thread is that Wane is actually right the atmosphere at Wigan is and has been pitiful for years I'm only surprised he's mentioning it now. Fact is we had a 10,000 crowd last night which means that despite a double winning season our season ticket sales have clearly dropped which will contribute to not only the attendance but the atmosphere also. There's virtually no singing anymore, no drums, the flags have virtually disappeared above the south stand. At the end of the day you have a go at Wane rather than trying to prove him wrong. Now unless your completely gullable we are so obviously not going to play like that next week it will be a completely different performance win or lose. Besides the Wigan crowd is always far better away from home but at the DW we are beyond woeful for atmosphere it's like what has been previously stated as soon as we concede there's a collective deflation from the crowd rather than thinking we are doing something wrong so let's get behind the team and get them back into the game no we just slump in our chairs and cogmplain about the performance then ultimately complain at Wane when he tells you the atmosphere is crap.

What utter drivel, we pay to be entertained that's why we go to the game. If season tickets are down then that's the clubs fault, obviously something isn't right is it. We have wane constantly chopping and changing the team and when questioned usually states along the lines of "it's my team, I'll do what I want" maybe the stay away fans are taking the same stance! The atmosphere has gone down dramatically since the banning of the brigantes crew for an incident that happened elsewhere, because "we are Wigan" as the club like to tell everyone we can't condone that behaviour and both ban and break the group up, they then have the audacity to blame the fans for lack of atmosphere!! What other club would have done that, the answer is none of them, but I forget, "we are Wigan " aren't we.

The main problem when it comes to the Wigan fans at present, is they don't feel they've anything to look forward to.

The constant rumours linking Wigan players to RU and the NRL are becoming a real downer.

I can't speak for everyone, but it's difficult to build enthusiasm for the future if all you're thinking is the latest crop of stars (and that may include the coach as well) could be gone as soon as next year.

I'm sorry but who's sat at a game thinking "I can't enjoy this because a player might leave next season"? The main aspects of the poor atmosphere are that a lot of regular season games are pretty meaningless, we've been god awful in the majority of this season's and we haven't had a "big" game with a decent away following (the Hudds game should have been this but we played so poorly we looked beaten before the game really got going). A lot of the remaining home fixtures are much more attractive, if the team turn up and play well the fans will respond accordingly.

This.
Last night should have been an exhibition for 80 minutes, and another schooling of RL that we could have got excited about with an aim of nilling the opponent and as close to a perfect completion rate as possible.

What we got was a team going through the motions, hopefully with an eye on next week, so they got a flat crowd.

Wane obviously understands what it takes to win trophies by timing the performances, and rotating. If he wants to do that against lesser opposition, who don't bring a decent following he has got to understand it's not going to be a good atmosphere.

Anyway. Bowens try was good. But I miss Sam and the excitement he delivered every time he played.

Talking of Bowen, he can shift for a has been with dodgy knees..!!!!. Lets hope he goes through the season injury free, and the same for all our lads..

Why would the fans get behind or cheer the half ar$ed effort that we are currently seeing?

I've thought this for a while but i'm sick to death of three issues that, imo, have risen to the forefront under Wane;

1- This might not be to everyone's likening but i'm sick of watching weakened sides full of kids. If i wanted to watch the academy then i'd go and see them. I'm paying to see the 1st team play and that's who i expect to see turn out. By all means drop the occasional young talent in but i don't want to see a raft of them in the side at one time.

2 - Our effort and commitment in defence. What happened to the nasty defence that we saw week in, week out under Madge? I used to love watching opposition teams getting smashed into the turf tackle after tackle, set after set and game after game. We had a real nasty streak in us which i don't think is there anymore.

3- Wane quotes in the media whether that's about how tough training was, how hard he is to please, how poor certain players have been, how he'd like to coach in the NRL or how quiet the fans are. I wish he'd just button it and keep it in house. If he's not happy with how the players are performing then flog them, drop them or get rid of them but the rest of the world doesn't need to know about it.

The 'Brigantes' were never banned, a couple of people that attached themselves to the group got bans from the DW (but not from away games), the others finished for other reasons.

Most of the people I know personally, many of whom have been going for decades.

It's not the only problem for sure, but it's surely plain as mustard that we are never going to reconstruct a Wigan dynasty in the old style as long as we are constantly on the verge of losing exciting young players - you can say goodbye to Taylor and Charnley next season, and maybe Shaun Wane too.

If you don't think that's a cause for some disenchantment among fans, then I admire your optimism. But I do agree there are many other factors well beyond our control.

I agree with the point that seeing 5 or 6 established players leaving every season is disheartening, and I think this is the major reason for the steady decline in ST ticket numbers and average attendance over the the last couple of seasons. I don't personally think it's something a lot of fans are considering when they are in the stadium watching a game, however. Our home games now seem to be made up of dull wins against the lesser teams and convincing defeats to the top teams, until this trend is bucked I can't see much improvement in the atmosphere.

We've been spoilt in recent years with success and obviously with a big bulk of players gone we're back in a rebuilding process again as the quality is nowhere near the same in certain positions, centres and props mainly for me.

Going back to the success we've had, we have also watched the old enemy dip in form over the recent seasons but they've slowly been building and that's why they are ahead of us and Warrington so far this season. They probably will finish higher than us in the league, whether or not they will win the GF is another question but they are certainly in a much more stable position than us and that's because they've had a couple years rebuilding where really this is our first. Although we're not playing particularly well at the moment we're still getting the results. We're just going to have to be patient for a while and see if we can step up another couple of gears.

Then I stand corrected but for gods sake let's get them back again.

if we win Friday no one will give a tuppence

Until the next god awful home performance, probably on Monday !

I fully agree with what you are saying about being in a rebuilding process.

Unfortunately the fact that we are in our current position is one the reasons for fans being peed off. We should NEVER have been allowed to slump into our current position. It was only 2010 when we had a world class coach, a quality assistant and a team brimming with quality young players set to put a decade of dominance in the history books.

For me it's then a kick in the teeth for Wane to come out with his comments. He should really hold his words and realise many of these fans have followed Wigan for decades. They've remained loyal through some of the poor Whelan years (06 springs to mind) and have recently got behind the side in record numbers.

Fans aren't muggs. They can see other clubs keeping hold of their best talent but yet the complete opposite happening at Wigan. Fans aren't going to be happy watching us go 10-0 down to London knowing that a few years ago we had a team that would rip them apart and smash them in defence.

The Wigan club should be looking more at themselves rather than slating their own fans.

the point of the SL is to make the play-offs and ensure that over the season you learn your best setup, and protect your best players for the play-offs.
Winning against London and learning that a few players are not up to it (Dudson) but others (Williams) are worth perservering with, is invaluable.

I dont want us to win the LLS and enter the play-offs with green backups and a word out 1st XIII

Bingo. You play to the system you're given. Under this system the best method is to rotate the squad through the year and prepare for the play offs and cup games. Next season will be different when we need to aim for top 2 (min 4th) rather than top 4 (min 8th) during the regular season

With the way the league is now the first 2/3 of the season mean very little. Form means nothing, you need Form for the last 5-6 games. We've don't it previous and so have Huddersfield, no point blasting away now only to burn out.