I'm here for your education & my amusement.

Everyone knows why you're here petal. Envy, pure and simple.

With no disrespect to Salford, if we attack and defend with the same aggression shown there, this Friday, then Wigan will win, PROVIDING we improve on discipline. If the ref (who is it btw?) pings us just half as much as Child did, we're in for problems.

I reluctantly feel this game will show how much we've fallen backwards with losing:
Hock
Lima
Camont
Finch
Tommy.

All of which would walk into our team.

Worried.

We couldn't beat them last year with those 5 in the team so you never know!
I presume if we beat them without those players in the team their replacements must be better players?

Bearing in mind Hansen Lauauki Tuson iirc all played last year who would probably get into our team tomorrow then 8/17 are missing from last year.
We'll have to wait and see but instead of worrying about what we havent got im more interested in what we have got.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the younger lads (thornley Taylor dudson Hughes Powell) go on, coupled with the younger lads still in the team from last year (tomkins charnley goulding Farrell mossop mm) who are all 23ish or under.

It will be interesting to see how our 2 new half backs go as a pairing (25&26) and have the peak of their careers together for the next 3years to provide stability and with a few seasoned pros in lockers and richards thrown in who both have a couple of years left in them IMO.

I always thought this year we may have go one step back but with a view to being 2/3 steps forward in 2014/2015
The loss of hock is a blow (unless off the field influences affected the team more than he brought to the team as a whole dependant on your viewpoint) which hopefully may got fixed with the right replacement but overall I'm very positive about the future.
Will this game/season be a touch too far, who knows, but I'm certainly not writing them off and with a view on the short term future (next 2/3 years) I'm more than happy with how things are looking.

Indeed

i have a 'nothing to lose' feeling about tomorrow and am fair looking forward to it

well at least the back end of the season all the young lads will have had a fair few games under their belt and as long as they finish top 6 they could still be in with a great shout.

Talk about an over-reaction! It's not exactly the fault of Riley and co that Wire haven't been champs since 1955. As I was born in that year, it's hardly outside 'living memory', either. The rest of your analysis is too over-simplistic to merit further comment.

Or you could have a go at the idiot to whom I was replying, the simple minded ignorance of which provoked my reaction. I take back the point about living memory. I perhaps should have just stated how long it was - 58 years sounds far better.

Seems like wigan fans have selective memories. Early 80s anyone?

Reached the Lancashire Cup Final in 1980, won the John Player in 1982, reached the Challenge Cup Final in 1984. Won the Challenge Cup Final in 1985.

Siege mentality comes to mind, a lot of fans have written Wigan off and others are hopefully saying that Wigan will surprise people (without much conviction).
I just think that there comes a time when these young Wigan players who are seen as being the finest crop of players who have come through the ranks for many a year have to face up.

The talk surrounding this match reminds me of a match about 8 years ago Stuart Raper was the coach in a match against Saints.
Wigan turned out a team of kids (Luke Robinson, Kevin Brown) and a rack of players who had been brought in to make a team.
That was one of the most amazing matches I can remember seeing, at the final whistle Raper seemed to be tears and the memory which sticks in my mind was all the young uns mobbing Terry O'Conner for the part he had played in leading them through the match.

But if the young uns have to stand up so has Sean Wane, he has to treat them as adults and by that he has to realise that ruling by fear does not work out to be the best option.
When I say ruling by fear I mean because when he was in charge of the under 20s it was said he was worshipped by the young uns and his word was law. But he seems to have taken the way he coached the young uns in the under 20s into the way he coaches the first team. ( My Word Is Law).
I think this is borne out by the tales on here that he had falling outs with Hock and Fielding and the sooner Sean realises that some players react to a rollicking and others rebel the better coach he will be.

Bloody rubbish Wigan

If you have to go back 30 years to an extended drought that proves rather than undermnines the illustrious history point. Plus, even then, as noted, there were some better than average moments. Gill's winning the John Player for us being a particular highlight amidst the gloom.

Siege mentality, aren't you second favourites for the GF?

Go on the VT. Some are having us down as low sixth.

I'd imagine some peoples' feelings about the club aren't determined by what a few turf accountants think.

We have a good recent history of good back-to-the-wall performances (against Saints sometimes pre-Maguire, Leeds when they were still on their GF run 2010, and last year when we stuffed them with the kids; the last few visits to Huddersfield players down etc) and not so much in the big games where we're expecting a close one (especially SFs, very annoyingly).

I'm hopeful for tonight; expect it to be a good game with little signs of rustiness from either team, but do expect a Wire victory. I'd be backing us more if we were away tbh.

True, but bookies are right far more often than punters.

Hopefully Carvell will produce his usual 5 penalties and 5 knock ons a game tonight to give us a helping hand.

True,

you rarely see a poor bookie, but RL is one of those few sports the punter with good knowledge can have the edge on them. I remember reading an article a few years ago by a bloke who made his fortune gambling and his advice was if you want to make a living from gambling go and get an encyclopaedic knowledge of a minority sport - there wasn't anything about lower league Scottish football he didn't know and that is all he bet on.

I'm tempted to ask how much you have lost....

The bookies employ people like Jackie Edwards to help them set their handicaps. Bookies make money!

I'm actually looking forward to this game, no real pressure on Wigan and will give us a better view of how this young team will go this year, obviously it's not the be all and end all if we win/lose but it will certainly tell us at more than the Salford game did last week.