Cruncher wrote:Ainscough's current form makes the decision to keep him in the reserves for so long look nonsensical. He's now played three times for the first team, and has been very good on each occasion. This isn't just a case of beginner's luck.
However, it pains me to see Wigan fans arguing bitterly over this sort of thing.
As someone else said, it isn't really a black and white issue. I don't think Nobby's been as good for Wigan as I hoped he was going to be when we first announced him. But a coach with his record can not just be written off as 'crap'. It can't be that simple.
Personally, I don't think I've ever called for him to be sacked, but I've certainly expressed disatisfaction and concern with the way his team has been playing these last few years. One or two good wins are just not adequate for a club like ours. Likewise, Noble's been slow to promote youth. Not as slow as some would claim, but he's clearly not been eager to pitch the kids in. However, I don't really buy this 'he only did it because he had to' viewpoint. I'd argue that most youngsters only really get their chance when injuries open doors for them. If they then kick on and show what they can do, and are subsequently left out again, that's a big question-mark against the coach's wisdom. But so far Noble hasn't done that. Prescott, O'Carroll and Joel Tomkins have all come to the fore under Noble, and - regardless of whether or not he was 'forced' to pick them in the first place - he's kept faith with them since, rewarding their efforts with regular selection. I can't understand why some Noble doubters continue to ignore this piece of evidence, and think it's very odd and contrary of them.
One thing I reckon we'll all agree on is that we hope what we saw on Saturday night will now continue through the season. If Noble can get this team to play like that for a good few months, I'd happily hand him another contract myself. The days of posters on here seeing Wigan defeats as small victories for themselves over rival posters seem thankfully to be a thing of the past.
I certainly wouldn't want Wigan to lose to prove a point, far from it. If you'd seen me on Saturday I was loudly supporting the team and was as pleased as anybody that we won. I make no apologies for the fact that defeats like the Wakey one this year and Hudds last year leave me absolutely gutted. No true Wigan fan can watch performances like that and not be upset.
I do agree that to some extent BN has become a bit of a focal point for irritation over the failure of our youth policy in recent years, its certainly not fair to suggest that he is solely or even mainly to blame. I still remain mystified by his selections this season though (Mathers? Phelps?). I only saw the Leigh match pre-season but both of those two looked awful and Smith didn't look great either (and was truly shocking against Wakey).
I've said on other threads that BN is only part of the problem. Our failings to my mind lie more in a general malaise in terms of standards than any one individual and I'm not sure that the best coach in the world could properly turn things round at Wigan on his own.
We need to raise standards across the board. That includes much better recruitment and the fitness side in particular, which aren't the direct responsibility of BN. I've used the example of Riddell and Smith before - good players in theory (and Riddell is now starting to deliver) - but they don't look to have the required level of fitness. That simply would not have been allowed in the old days, e.g. Inga arrived with a massively bigger reputation than either of those players but was made to conform to the Wigan way. He was forced to lose weight and improve his fitness.
We just don't seem to do that any more, second (or even third) best seems to be OK.
To be fair to BN he can't sort that kind of thing out on his own, it needs IL and the board to set the agenda just as ML and the directors in the mid 80s had a vision of Wigan becoming great again and set out to make us the best in everything we did.
