Time to stand up and be counted. Our backs are firmly against the wall, but thats brought us many top performances over the years, time to pull another out the bag. I think its going to be a lot closer than people seem to think.

=red[size=150Come On You Saints![/size

ive not seen any posts on here or cherry and whites where anyone is predicting a comfortable victory for their respective team. its a derby and both teams have their fair share of injuries. one or two scores either way i think. cant wait.

Theres quite a few in the predictions thread that are predicting a comfortable Wigan win.

Um, that's because it will be!

I've noticed that the sun is shining. If it doesn't rain for the match, as was predicted a few days ago, that means we have no hope as all Wigan have to do is kick it wide or swing it wide and we're a gonna!

Just like it was going to be comfortable Hudds win on Friday, going off your many posts on here and the Hudds board leading up to the game?

Fact is, you don't know whether it will be a comfortable Wigan win today any more than it was a comfortable win for Hudds last Friday, a comfortable win against Salford a month back or a comfortable win for Wire against a weakened Bulls last night - nobody does.

I'm sure the players aren't going to roll over and have their tummies tickled as easily as a lot of our fans.

I think it's disrespectful that we so quickly write off our St Helens lads like Wellens, Roby, Graham, Cunningham, Clough etc in a derby match by saying they have "no hope" in the run up. Of course we have a chance. It's Wigan, not the '82 Kangaroo Invincibles.

I'm very cautious.

Remember what we did in 2003 and 2004 v Saints with a team full of kids. Enthusiasm can be great short term leveller.

i dont think this will be one sided by any means. look at bradford last night. desimated with injury but nearly pulled off a shock, and that wasn't even a derby. saints will keep this close and could edge it. it cannot be unerestimated the loss of lockers. his work rate and big hits are crucial to us, and he is also in the top 5 in try assists this year. im still not convined eastmond wont play either

On paper for me Wigan should win. Good news for us is games arent played on paper. My head says Wigan by 10-16 points but my heart says Saints can do it. To win we'll need to dominate up front and literally starve Wigan of field position.

No doubting O'Loughlin is a big loss to your side, but we have several big players missing which is why our backs are against the wall. That can often bring the best of a team though and hopefully Saints step up to the plate, i'm quietly confident. Eastmond isn't playing, Moore at scrum half. He's not making a Radlinski style recovery unfortunatley.

both teams have their fair share of injuries, we are lucky to some extent that the players coming in have been blooded throughout the season and look to be able to do a good job for us. i dont really know much about your youngsters and the explosiveness of eastmond is a loss. the forward battle is cruical and this is where we are missing key individuals in lockers, hansen and mossop. but our three quarter line looks better on paper and we have an established half back pairing. its gonna be interesting, and a close game, 6-8 points either way. oh and bentham is reffing so we'll get cained especially as potter has been doing the tactic we seem to face every week by going to the press moaning about our defensive tactics..

Both teams may have their injuries - Saints though are in more key positions. I'd like Wigan to take us on without a number of key players. For us it is sometimes a case of we are playing not second choice but third choice in those positions. We have coped well so far and it will only do the lads good in the long term. Bragging rights it may be today - who knows. The end of the season will be another matter I would take us from anywhere to step up to the challenge provided we can get most if not all those key players back.
COME ON YOU SAINTS YOU CAN DO IT. (put the fear of God up the pies. )

You write as if I was the only one to anticipate a defeat, given that we had so many of our experienced players missing! Most posters anticipated a defeat against Hudds given our personnel situation. So you can't pin that on just me.

Given that Wigan beat us last time out and we performed poorly on the night (dropping ball and missing tackles, as can be our way this season) and given that we are missing some key players with as others have said sometimes third choice guys in their place, I think it's only reasonable to anticipate a loss against the league leaders who are six points ahead of us and don't look like losing anytime soon. That doesn't mean they WILL win, obviously, because as you so astutely point out, I am not a prophet or clairvoyant and therefore cannot tell the future. However, given our player situation I don't think we will win.

I have my ticket for the match, I will be there, I will be shouting and singing my support, and I hope we pull off a win. I don't think we will, but there is always hope.






You do say some stupid things.