WIGAN WARRIORS stalwart Liam Marshall says Matt Peet’s men have plenty to fix as they prepare for a Challenge Cup quarter-final trip to Wakefield.
The Warriors head into Sunday’s tie on the back of successive defeats after losing to Huddersfield, then St Helens, in Super League clashes.
Those two results have put the brakes on a previously unblemished start to the season, with Wigan winning all seven matches in all competitions.
Peet’s side were 24-10 up after Zach Eckersley crossed on 66 minutes and Adam Keighran kicked his fourth goal from four attempts.
Buts Saints stormed back into the contest with the help of four tries to leave Wigan reeling and winger Marshall admitting: “The last ten minutes were shocking really. It’s below our standards.”
As Peet said “the players have owned it and will be the response that’s important now”, Marshall, who made his 200th Super League appearance, added: “We are obviously very disappointed with the result.”
Talking to Wigan TV, he continued: “It wasn’t good enough from start to finish.
“We got ourselves in a position to win the game. I don’t think we were playing great all game, and then we sort of rolled over at the end. It’s below our standards.
“As much as the fans will be very disappointed, we’re hurting after that. It just wasn’t good enough, and we need to fix it.
“At half-time we had a slim lead, but we didn’t feel like we had played our best.
“And we just weren’t there in the second half. We got ourselves into a winning position, and then we’ve just rolled over at the end.
“We’ll have some tough, honest conversations this week and try to fix it up, because you don’t want to lose any game in that manner. The last ten minutes were shocking.”
Wigan go to Wakefield aiming to add to Challenge Cup wins over Rochdale and Bradford already this season.
The club has lifted the trophy a record 21 times, but were toppled 25-10 by Trinity at Wembley in the 1963 final.
The last time the pair met in the Challenge Cup was in 2022, when Wigan won 35-6 at Wakefield in the quarter-finals and went on to beat Saints in the semi-finals and Huddersfield in the final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.