Just not good enough!!!!

Seriously disappointing stuff. Not just because we struggled to beat a team with all kinds of disadvantages, but because it feels like amateur night all over again.

We make so many pathetic mistakes. We are chock full of players who just can't seem to keep their minds on what they are doing. Plus, we have quite a few players who are plain bang-average.

We truly are worlds away from St Helens, or even the standards we ourselves were setting only a few years ago.

There's doing it tough and then there's not having Mago on for the whole of the 1st half (I think) and then did he do 18 or so mins in the 2nd? I might have missed him, but I'm sure I didn't.

Tonight kinda reinforces my argument from another thread. We need another prop or big body in the pack. Partington and Smithies did well (Partington was excellent in parts), but are they really back up options? The squad, imo, isn't well balanced in between the different positions.

I had us down as a solid 6 out of 10 at half time. The odd glimpse of good stuff with the odd defensive blunder.

When we went 28-6 up after our purple patch of 10-15 mins I was prepared to increase to 6 out of 10. But after switching off completely, allowing Cas to rip us apart down the middle I'm afraid its 5/10 at best overall. And I think I'm being generous.

That was awful, a decent team would put forty on us at this moment in time and it needs sorting, I may be being unkind due to us losing two forwards but it's been showing for four weeks now.

We are better with the ball than last year, and worse without it. Overall are we improved? Probably, but only just.

There's a long way to go, and lot of improvement needed. Luckily you only need a decent 3 weeks at the end of the season to have a chance.

I can't believe we took the knee for Ukraine. Damn politics infiltrating sporting events

As daft as it sounds we are not far away from being a very good side in my opinion.

Holding us back, I feel, is our lack of ability to consistently maintain the intensity of our play. I still believe there is an attitude issue where arrogance overtakes performance and we switch off.

Saints are the marker and they are ruthless they don’t switch off.

This year is our last transitional year in my opinion. I do believe we have poorly managed contracts, Isa and Smith for example.

Isa has been a wonderful servant to the club, but he’s a declining force and any attacking play is stunted when he gets his hands on the ball. He’s also very similar to the edge forwards we have we desperately in my opinion need size in the secondrow.

Tommy/Smith.

Not even close to a debate. We must sign a half when Tommy retires. Smith to be fair put in 2 good kicks, but once again was anonymous and also came up with the now standard pass to the floor and pass into touch.

Well sorry to be negative but that was awful.

Jai Field and some terrible Cas errors and discipline won us the game.

Passing accuracy was poor, our defensive line was like a sieve and we looked a confused team playing without confidence.

Marshall and Halsall simply couldn't deal with the high kicks that came their way. KPP with a couple of really poor defensive reads on the other side. Did Bateman play? Farrell scored a couple but uncharacteristically poor with his defence. Mago is disgracefully unfit - 18 minutes in total and he was exhausted for 16 of them. Harry Smith looks very low in confidence.

Aside from Jai Field, the only other positives were the hard work from Smithies, Byrne and Partington - despite their limitations they never hide.

I have to say I thought the Prop rotation was very poor, assume injuries played their part.

Very odd to bring Mago on at half time in particular.

I’m of the opinion Harry Smith is to Wigan as Jordan Lilly was to Leeds.

I'm a big Harry Smith fan, but the more the weeks go by the more I don't think he is making it at Wigan. I'm clinging to the pack being no good before I judge him but how long do we do that for?

I feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot in defence with KPP at centre and Zak on the wing. Several times tonight KPP came inside (don't blame him as a SR they tend to defend 10 yards in compared to centres) meaning Zak comes inside also and a side with someone as fast as Eden will take advantage. It needs sorting because Saints will definitely take advantage.

I keep asking myself, are they limited players or is too much being asked of them and, in turn, does that over highlight their weaknesses?

Byrne once again showed his potential tonight. Mago should have been doing what Byrne did i.e stepping up and leading from the front. I say it each week - there's not many 22 year old props in SL that can do that and already have the same number of games under their belt as him.

Partington (a player I've been critical of) showed what we all know - he's a good player. If we only had him and not a couple of others like him, he'd stand out and be a real crowd favourite. The issue is, he's not a meter maker so when he's alongside Isa and Smithies, we struggle to get on top of sides. That in turn makes people point the finger and ask if they are good enough.

You stick either one of Partington or Byrne in with a McMeeken or Walmsley and they are flying.

About 3 more years, as that's what's left on his deal. Rightly, or wrongly, it isn't Wigan's style to let him go earlier.

He could do with a season on loan imo.

As a side note, if anyone thinks this is the same situation as last year - go and watch Peet break down the game with John Wells. It's on the Sky Sports app and is a great snippet into what we're working towards. You can see there's a game plan and, apart from last week, we're scoring points.

Don’t think Peet trusts Mago, particularly defensively.

I know it’s been debated on here but IMO his fitness is poor. Not so much tonight but a lot in the other games his defensive is lazy. Lazy arms out, no ruck control etc.

Really hate to say because I’ve previous seen it as a lazy comparison but he’s almost “Feka” like.

We should be keen to get him on after 22/25 minutes and inject himself into the game and lift us, then 10 minutes after HT then maybe 10 mins at the end.

Instead we were hiding him until the second half instead relying on the young lads.

Not good tonight at all. When we were 28-6 up I was wanting us to be ruthless and put them to the sword but we just went into our shell.

Young middles played well I thought but will have to watch it back.

Great to see Havard back.

We’re similar to 2020 where we are solid enough but just relying on the brilliance of our full back for points.

I do think we’ll improve though.

28-6 and the cue went on the rack, that was the biggest disappointment, just poor attitude thinking the game was over.
Please put K P-P back into the forwards, that right hand side is painfully slow.
Reckon if Westerman had been playing 13 for us we'd've scored 50, best forward on the pitch by a mile

A strange game really. I wasn’t at all happy at half time and I didn’t feel the second half was a vast improvement but at one it looked like we could win by 30-40 points. We called for more entertainment and a better attack and a worse defence is bringing that but take Field out of the side and you start to worry that it could go more 2021 than the 2020 side with Field playing the part of French.

As for individuals, Field you can’t really say much more about. Absolutely sensational and again tonight, like the Leeds game, he makes a couple of really good tackles that get overshadowed by his brilliance with the ball.

I thought Marshall has a bit of a mare first half but did bounce back. KPP was suspect at times and it might be time to get him back in the forwards. I was really disappointed with Isa’s first spell again and that has been the case most of the season. I thought Partington offered far more when he came on and if we select on merit, he should take that 13 shirt next week. I thought Smithies, Byrne and Havard were all really strong.

I’d probably give all the senior forwards a bit of a rocket tonight tbh. Powell was ok but no more, Faz much the same, Isa ordinary in that first spell, Bateman looked crocked at times, with Westerman racing away from him with ease in the first half and then doing a spell on the wing (which surely must’ve been due to a knock) and Mago just didn’t do long enough. I don’t know if they just don’t trust his fitness enough and if that is the case, it’s poor form but I still say even though he looks gassed, he could do far more minutes.

8 points up with minutes to go against 12 men and we take a penalty goal. Peet didn't look happy as he'd signalled to play the ball.

It’s taken about 12 years but the penny finally dropped for Westerman last year and he’s currently one of the best forwards in the league for my money. I was hoping we’d go in for him part way through last season and recall being ridiculed on the other board by a couple of people for the suggestion. The lad should’ve been this good in his early-mid twenties but has wasted most of his career. He absolutely destroyed us tonight.

A sure sign that the players are a special breed sometimes. Take a tap and take a minute plus out of the game, which in turn makes it impossible for Cas to score twice or take the 2, give them a short kick off and increase their minimal chances of a win by offering them the opportunity to go back to back with try’s.

Game management or lack thereof reared it's ugly head again

I enjoyed watching Joe Westerman tonight . He was outstanding and reminded me of what we miss in Lockers.

Yep, at best score and put the result to bed, at worst play the six out for a repeat set or make Cas play the ball from their own line. Crazy decision, somebody wants a talking to for that. Luckily we got away with it.

If I remember right, wasn't Westerman bracketed with Sam Burgess as the two great hopes of English rugby league as a rookie?

Yeah, I wondered. So, who decides that? The captain on the field? Tommy?

We can't defend short kick off's must loose the ball 75% of the time so keeping the ball in their 20 and not giving them the chance of good field position was priority imo .

I wasn't coincidence either that things started to go pear shaped when "Wee Tam" went off . Game management went out of the window right then

EW