Fielden just had one of those nights. It was a nightmare at times but the thing that impressed me about him was that each time he made an error he went looking for the ball and ran it in even stronger then before(and usually runined it with another error but still).

He would have just hid over the past couple of years.

completely ignoring the fact that he tackled everything infront of him,prob one of the best defensive displays iv seen from fielden for a while

He always does though, i expect no less from Fielden in defence, look at the error stats! i've seen whole teams go through games making less errors and conceding less penaltys.

one of those nights for big stu!we still won, top of the league just calm down abit!!!

Im calm

Tis like you said just one of those nights in a close game though it could have been devestating. He will bounce back massively next week, be very afraid saints

Leeds didn't force the errors. It was Fielden own thick head that thought 'I can trown the ball away and the ref will give us a penaly for interfeerence'. He has been playin well so far this season but he has well and truely gone back to the way he hs been playing in previous years. The sooner we get rid the better.

biggest over-reaction in the history of man!

he didnt have his best game tonight. but on balance he is playing well for us. so i am not going to get to stressed about it

he's been playing well so far, but because of one bad performance we should get rid?


we would miss him, especially in defence IMO, and I'm not his biggest fan.

Fielden was appauling and it was very fustrating to watch. He should be dropped based off that performance but considering his impressive season upto now, I don't think we can afford to and just hope he's back to his best next week.

That's going way too far imo, he made a few errors (and was harshly done to on a couple more), but yet had a fantastic game defensively and made good meters going forwards to, running the ball in hard with ryan bailey hitting him high a couple of times. Drop him in place of who? and who makes up the defensive display (which was top drawer)?

Or does defence over his whole match spell count for less than a few errors?

In principle I agree with dropping him. Making that many errors, some are well within thier rights to say Feka got dropped for less- to an extent.

But watching the match again it was a decent performance from him made to look sh*t by his handling errors. Defence was solid, and going forward he was good too (when he kept hold of it!)

Re: Feka being dropped for less - granted he didn't make as many errors BUT his workrate both in defence and attack are/were woeful at times, almost like he'd bottled it. At least Fielden looks up for it and always takes it in, takes the hard hits and makes the hard yards. Feka will get his chance again - I guarantee it and when he does I'll fully support him, he's a Wigan player and so long as he pulls on that cherry and white jersey I'll support him and any other player.

I feel some people were waiting for Fielden to f*ck up. So much for a clean slate eh?

We're sitting pretty at the top of the table, for once lets [uall[/u get behind every single player.

Those costly mistakes were worth dropping for...There must have been four or five in our own thirty not to mention penalties he gave away.

They out weighed any good work he did and it's just a good job we wasn't playing a better side or else they would have punished us and those mistakes would have been highlighted even more.

Like I say, he's had a good start so I wouldn't drop him. But taking into Mossop's performance, he could start with Coley and promote Feka with O'Carroll and Prescott backing up too.

Fielden had a poor game tonight. He coughed up the ball in key areas and regardless of what he did in defence that isn't good enough IMO.

I wouldn't drop stu next week but Feka would be in the 17 somewhere. He can't justify keeping him out of the mix for much longer

Whilst I respect your opinion, I think if it outweighed anything he did in defence, Leeds would have put more than 4 points on the board.

At the end of the day though, I trust Maguire and Wane who will analyse the full game and look at all the factors of a players performance in a match, not just the headline moments. If they drop Stu, then fair play he deserves to be dropped, if however they select him, then I think some people have been a bit harsh tonight.

The way the guy took the ball up in the last 20 after all those errors impressed me, he certainly didn't hide.

And what good would dropping him do - it's not as if he didn't follow the game plan, didn't try or dropped them deliberately. So if he consistently drops balls get rid, otherwise it's just one of those games and move on.

Exactly.

He would have stood in the background sulking last year but not this season. It was his efforts of keep taking the ball in and being determined to make up for his errors that convinces me he should keep his place for Friday.

Poor errors made but immense in defence... Defo dont drop for next week!!

Stu was immensely frustrating last night because if he had performed with the same effort without the stupid errors he would have been my man of the match.

Don’t get me wrong I know that his error count has to include in any assessment of his performance. But everything else he did was outstanding last night.

He ran very hard and was (as usual) a monster in defence throughout the entire game. He could have spat his dummy and gone into hiding but he never, he just kept on trying and trying to help the team.

His attitude really impressed me last night. I know he had a pop at ganson but I think he had an argument as one or two of the errors should have been penalties against Leeds.

Everyone will have a stinker this year, but if they show the same attitude against adversity as Stu then we will do just fine.

In the squad for next week ready to prove a massive point

Stevo said on Extra time that Fielden made 30+ tackles so we can't be too hard on him imo.

One of those nights.

Enjoyed watching wigan this season I think you have really got what it takes to be GF winners. However fielden was very very poor last night, yes you could say there was bit of interference, but it is fieldens job to keep a good grip on the ball, I think the way he plays the ball does not help him a few of you have mentioned he slams ball in floor and pushes off it. For the size of contract he is on a huge reduction will be possibly offered or get in the market for a better class front rower. You coach seems very switched on so I'm sure all things mentioned above will be addressed. We just have our headcoach talking complete b@!!ox on sky when we are playin much worse than both teams he's so called correcting.

Keep up good work nice to see a change at the top.

A hopeful Salford supporter!

Could it be simply that he was a bit too hyped up last night against Leeds?

When his form wasn't exactly the best over the last couple of seasons, you could pretty much guarantee that he'd raise his game against Leeds.

He's had a good season so far and I'd like to think of this as a blip on the attacking front.

I'm not trying to excuse his performance, just provide an observation as to why he may have had a mare when he had the ball in hand.

They are lying under him because he is trying to crawl forward and steal yards. Possibly not on every occasion, but if you gain a reputation for something it often works against you (as Senior found out).

Watch the game again and take the tinted specs off. Even in his younger days at Bradford, he was using this tactic, but it can't always work for you.

I can only reiterate what people have said about his defence being superb. IMO, in offence, he was trying too hard when carrying the ball, so much so that the ball was being dislodged in the collision (although more than once there was interference) which didn't help.

He's all heart and he gives 100% every game. We won the game convincingly and fortunately no real harm was done by these errors and I hope he looks back at his performance and realises he needs to go back to the training ground and work on the way he carries the ball.

What I did find more annoying were the few fans sitting just below me who were shouting to Ganson to 'please sin bin him and get him off the pitch' when Fielden back chatted. He did get a huge round of applause when he came off though from the West Stand faithful which I feel was deserved.

Fair summary imo.

Though it's "attack" not "offence" ...................unless you are from Tampa.................