You got the feeling it would be a long night after bombing that early chance...



Smith and Hampshire have been incredibly poor.

If we get anything back you feel it will come from Field as he is the only one who looks capable of doing anything - head and shoulders above Smith and Hampshire. Smith is having another of those poor games.



Our forwards have gone backwards in recent weeks apart from Thompson who at least looks interested, Mago and especially Dupree are offering nothing and Havard is not really doing a lot and even Ellis looks off the boil. A few need a serious rocket based on recent performances.



The incredibly slow ruck (how many weeks does Hilll get to clear the ruck but then he has always done it) is allowing Hudds to set their defense all the time so there is no broken play at all.

Walters there lacking the basics again. Size of him, he shouldn’t be concerned about getting a hit from a winger.



On a side note, if we’d have allowed Farrimond as much ball in play as we’ve allowed Hampshire today, we may have had something positive from the last two weeks.

Fair play to Hampshire much better second half but I am still not convinced hes Wigan standard

Think Walters has been great tonight.



By far his best performance in a Wigan shirt.



Looked pumped up to make an impact when he came on and he certainly did so.



One of the few positive points on a very dull game for me.

Was surprised to see Field start tonight, but he had a good solid hour tonight which he topped off with a tremendous try where he stepped five players to score. Still too many errors especially in that first half but good reaction following Wardle's try. Harry Smith had a game to forget though.



Need to improve on tonight as Leigh will be licking their lips.

Better second half but still too many areas of concern, Smith was well off form - hopefully he can find his feet again soon. We looked to get back to grindning down the opposition more in the second period which is what we should be doing as that is our game. Still too many unforced errors - although maybe the the conditions did have some bearing - can't be easy playing in that heat and humidity. Never seen so much holding and messing about in the tackle though - made for a poor game overall.



Will need to improve by a fair bit against Leigh especially in how we start the game - start like we did tonight and we could be in for a long nigh, their half backs will be more of a threat if we give them that much field position.

Never in doubt

Very pleased with the win - a defeat would have made the top 2 extremely tough.



Nervy and tense in the first half with terrible performances from both halves. We needed a moment of magic to change the momentum and Wardle provided it. Could have been 14-0 down and it gets us to 8-6 and from that point the intensity raised enough to pull away.



Thought Havard, Thompson, Nsemba and Keighran were pretty strong along with the X factor of Wardle and Field. Walters had a nice cameo.



Id stick with the Smith and Hampshire combo as we're probably best to try and get some continuity but they'll need to improve massively if we have a chance of winning either of the next two. Smith has been poor for the last few weeks and Hampshire just looked off the pace. He's had so little game time though I think he deserves some leeway.



But the win tonight means that even if we lose the next two (as I suspect we might) we'd still be in a good spot to get to the top 2 in the final 6 games.

Good win in the end. We looked short of confidence and energy for 45/50 mins but when we found both we looked more like ourselves. I still think we’ve a few tough weeks ahead but we’ll get through it and give making and winning the GF a good crack.

Going back on myself a little but the other option would be to play Keighran at 6 and move Eckersley back to centre. Keighran is a talented ball player - I'd be interested to see how that would go.

I was hoping for that change at half time but in fairness to Hampshire, he was much better after the break. Hopefully it gives him some confidence and momentum because he looked devoid of either first half (and has done every time he’s played). In fairness to him, it can’t be easy keep playing in fits and starts.