If that's the case, and I really hope it isn't, then the players and coaching staff need to take a long hard look at what they are doing wrong to let it happen two years in a row, though particularly this year as we haven't even had the "focusing on Wembley" excuse we had last year. Today could be a kick up the backside we've needed after coasting a bit recently or it is signalling the end of this season like you say, hopefully it's the former rather than the latter, in the next few weeks we will find out!

Unfortunately the next few weeks (Salford and HKR) won't tell us a lot and that shows how crap the overall quality of SL is at the moment.

No it won't, though we can work on everything within our own control that wasn't there today. Handling, pass selection, decision making, completion rate, defensive reads, last tackle options, discipline etc. Wire beat us today by being a lot better than us in all of these areas, some of which have been way off for a few weeks now but we've gotten away with it due to the calibre of opposition. I put in another thread we've got 9 days til our next game then a full weekend off, that time has to be used to post-mortem exactly what is going wrong, what is different to 2/3 months ago, and, most importantly, how to put it right.

[uThey think the King is dead, now it's up to them to show he's not dead, he's just been sleeping![/u

Having just checked the morning papers, i see that non of the three trophies as yet have a name on them. But, it would appear that Wigan were last night soundly beaten by Warrington. Chip paper, we have time to get things sorted.

This. 14 teams in the league and only four "contenders".

Teams can bounce back - just as Leeds did 6 weeks after being hammered and humiliated by Wigan.

We just have to get back the vim and vigour we had in May and June - only 1 game in the next 20 days should help recharge batteries and the return of a few players (Pat and maybe Tommy) should further help.

Our season will come down to what happens from Saints onwards. Yesterday had no bearing on who will win the league. Wire could quite easily be beaten in a knockout game just like we could.

My concern is how flat we've looked without Tommy and how many players look to be carrying knocks. Hopefully the time off after the Salford game will help because something needs to change or we're limping out the playoffs again.

We have Pat back fopr the salford game and tommy and fielden back for the hull kr game.

then we are at full strength. The season is still in our own hands

Will they be fit enough though because as yday and the semi final showed if they aren't then we shouldn't be playing them.

How good will Pat be after months out though? He wasnt even that impressive before his injury.

Also Fielden has been out for the best part of 2 years. He will be way off the pace and there is no way that I can see him being able to play to the higher standards of play off matches.

That isn't very reassuring. Yesterday showed problems with players being unfit. None of those players will reach match fitness this season.

Paat played in the reserves yesterday, fielden and maybe tommy will play reserves next week./

Pats kicking is worth up to 10 points per game for us.

We are all forgetting he scored a hatrick in his last game ghaving been out prior to that for 6 weeks.

No, we just aren't forgetting that after scoring three tries he got injured again and has been out for even longer.

Is that the same HKR and Salford that have beaten Wire this season. If we underestimate them we will get burned.

Agree with rougues. We have 6 cup finals left

We won't have six , we won't get there

We have at least 6.

What a defeatist!!!!!!

If you had played in the same team as me i would have punched you

we have at least 5..........3 league games and 2 only if we lose both in the play-offs

We do you're quite right. We won't lose the 2nd round tho I don't think. We'll lose the semi final.

Apparently James Roby has been sent to hospital with a suspected broken hand.
This could affect their current positioning in the league (having lost to Wakey today) over the next three weeks.

Saints, Leeds and Catalans battling it out for 3rd, 4th and 5th spots - or might Hull still sneak into top 4?

All this confirms that as far as the league is concerned there is a massive gap between the top 2 ( Wigan and Warrington) and the rest - but it also shows how unimportant consistency throughout the season is. If either Wigan or Warrington are below par in a one-off game (the play off semi -final), they will not get to Old Trafford.

IMO some of your fans are over negative here.

It's a bit embarrassing how little faith you have in your club - it is Wigan RLFC after all, you're top of the league and you have one game at Wire and start throwing in the towel because you know you can't possibly live with the might that is Warrington RLFC.

If I was a Wigan fan this would be my take on it:

- Wigan have been the better team overall this season (see the league table for evidence)
- Warrington are the better team on form at the moment
- Not so long ago Warrington were looking scratchy when Wigan were looking unbeatable so these are just ebbs and flows of the season and it will come down to who is in better form in the playoffs
- Warrington are going for the Challenge Cup and although you can't discount Leeds, the odds are in Warrington's favour, they will probably win that
- It is very difficult to win the double, unless you are a super dominant side with no clear rivals (eg Saints 2006). Warrington don't have that distance ahead of Wigan
- If Warrington win the Challenge Cup and go through all the emotions of success it will drain away a bit of the hunger while Wigan sit simmering after blowing it in the CC semi. The drain of that hunger does make a difference come the end of the season - see how we flopped against Hudds in 2010 and Wigan flopped twice against Saints last year
- You guys always go on about Warrington being 'bottlers' in the playoffs.
- So if Warrington bottle it who is going to win the Grand Final? Saints or Leeds?