WN83

Nearly did it again from the kick off Lees. He is leading with his non ball carrying arm. Awful technique that.

They just seem to have missed it. The disciplinary won’t I’d imagine.

Poor from Lees that

Huddersfield should’ve won by more. We looked flat, disjointed and a bit mentally drained from last week, which is understandable. Main positive for us was Matty Nicholson. He did nothing to change my mind that he could end up being the best of an excellent young bunch of forwards at Wigan.

Saints will without doubt react in the right way to last Saturday but Hull are playing well and it won't be easy, even with that positive reaction. It will be interesting to see if Saints carry on with shuffling things around all game, to ensure Lomax is hidden in defence. If they do then it could be a bit disjointed but they'll get the win. Saints by 12

Both teams by the looks of things. It looks to be a battle of who has the deepest squad and I can't really call it. I'm looking forward to it anyway. Hoping to see Matty Nicholson get a shot for us. He looks a serious prospect for the future.

It's Dire Straights and money for nothing.

I was obviously being optimistic! Ha. That is crazy and it’s little wonder the finals are struggling for neutrals at the levels we used to get. Even if it were at Wembley I doubt I’d have had much more of a chance of finding one (although I think Wembley itself has a link up with National Express).

You’d like to think this cost of living crisis won’t last forever but it won’t be going anywhere in the short term either. It’s a perfect storm in many ways at the moment, with things like train prices sky high before the sh*t really hit the fan anyway. Fuel costs now have seen coach prices shoot up to between £47.50 and £55 from what I’ve seen this time. I think the last time we went down in 2017 it cost about £35. The ticket costs are absolutely fine IMO but the costs of the whole day, especially for families, have really rocketed. As a whole sport, I think there needs to be more of a push to get neutrals to make a day of it. I don’t know for sure that they don’t but to me the RFL need to really get the community clubs heavily involved and incentivise them selling tickets. Give the clubs a % share based on sales maybe or have some sort of prizes on offer for the clubs that sell the most. It needs to start feeling like a celebration of the game as a whole again. There has to be more that can be done, then what seems to be currently. I wanted to book coach travel for the final a few weeks ago, as we were going regardless of who got there but I couldn’t find a single option. The approach just seems to be that we hope a couple of well supported clubs get there now and fill it as best we can.

Cracking player for us back in the day and always seemed a good bloke. Happy to see him get the job.

Fun times The Wigan fans may well support Leigh in that game but I’m not expecting the Leythers to be so accommodating in return.

That was the plan mate originally, as we were going anyway and I had zero faith in us winning. I was thankfully very wrong and it saves me getting ripped apart by a coach full of savage Leythers Found a Wigan coach going at 7am, so should hopefully be fine for your game. Looking forward to it. I’ll probably lend my support to Leigh with McDonnell turning out for you and Lammy in charge.

Looking forward to the game. Trying find a coach that will definitely get us there for kick off is a challenge but we should just about make it. I'm presuming they have put the Leigh fans down with the Huddersfield fans? if not that could be an interesting day out I could be wrong (I'm not) but I doubt many Leigh fans will be cheering us on in the Challenge Cup final.

Absolutely delighted with that win. I wasn’t confident and Saints showed in that spell after half time why they’re so good but I felt we deserved it overall. The most pleasing thing of Peets time so far IMO is how he is getting the younger players, who’d stagnated a little, to kick on now and become class players in their own right. All of Smith, Byrne, Havard and Smithies have improved more in this past few months, then they did in 3 years under Lam.

I’m so happy with that win, I just didn’t have us down as a chance. By the same token, Saints are a fantastic team and Huddersfield will give us one hell of a game. I’m more than convinced that Saints will go on and make it 4 on the spin but it’s been a good day for the game.

It feels like we're in better form now then going in to Good Friday. It helps that the backline will have Marshall back in, two natural centres and Bevan French is looking sharper by the week, so hopefully we'll be better with the ball. We need to manage Paasi from the bench far better then we did on Good Friday. He crucified us and his first spell was the real match winner. Again on that front it'll help having Kaide Ellis back. We managed to go toe to toe with the Saints pack for half an hour but the bench impact from Saints hurt us. We should have three props in Byrne, Havard and Mago to come on and a lot will rest on how they go. I feel like theres a lack of aggressive intent in defence from Mago and Havard at times but Byrne is throwing himself about and he could be key for us. It's still tough to look past Saints but I'm confident we can at least make the game interesting.

We’re a work in progress and unfortunately Saints level isn’t something we’ve reached yet. If Lomax misses out I’ll go Saints by 6 and if he plays I’ll go Saints by 16. We just need to take another step forward against them and hopefully stay in an arm wrestle for longer than Good Friday. The absences of Leuluai and Powell will hurt us defensively however.

We got the sort of game you thought we’d want in the end anyway. Jeez Wire were disappointing. It sounded like the Saints games was the opposite of what I’d have expected as well.

I don't think there's a hard and fast rule on what is the best for everyone. I just think that after watching us in every game this season, we need more tough games to train the brain to concentrate and stay switched on for 80 minutes. There have been lapses in every game and playing at a high intensity for 80 minutes looks as much a mental thing, as a physical one. That is why I think this is perfect 'for Wigan' but that doesn't mean it would be for anyone else. Looking at Saints for example, we know they can play for 80 minutes, at a huge intensity and they have very few lapses and even if they have a couple of comfy weeks before a big game, their intensity will go through the roof in the game that matters. I can't be sure on what people at the club would want but I think they will actually be pretty pleased that this game comes the week before the semi and not a comfortable home fixture.

It’s great to now be in a position where we can see the couple of areas to target for improvements in this next year or two. Towards the end of last season it was a case of having too many areas to mention and whilst this season hasn’t been perfect, it’s a far cry from those last few months under Lam.

Total opposite of my thinking. I was discussing last night with a mate how I think this game is absolutely ideal ahead of a big semi final. I’d rather have a big, local Derby, against a side coming in to form and who will push us extremely hard than a game at home to a team nearer the foot of the table, who we just won’t have the same motivation for and one where Field/French might have a few walk ins. There’s an 8 day turnaround as well, so fatigue from a big game shouldn’t be a worry and I’d like to think it’ll be a case of being battle hardened.

I got the train to and from London for the Tyson Fury fight at the weekend and coming home on Sunday was chaos! Numerous cancellations and the trains that did go were busting at the seems. It was much the same Saturday evening after the fight trying to get away from Wembley itself. It’s put me off going on the train to this one and we’ll drive or get the coach instead.

Saints with plenty to spare. Saints are defensively extremely ruthless but maybe not so much in attack and they don't usually rack up scores of 50/60 points. Saints by 30

Wire have really picked up these past couple of weeks so it'll be tight. We have the slightly shorter turnaround and a big game to keep an eye on next week, so I could see Wire edging it. Wire by 4

I’ll try and catch some of the game today on my way over to Wakey. A couple of young Wigan lads have gone on loan to Cornwall and are in the squad (Toby Brannan and Adam Jones). I’ve been impressed with Brannan when I’ve seen him. He’s a big prop and dominant at academy level, so it’ll be interesting to see how he goes against bigger blokes.