DISAPPOINTED Hull KR coach Justin Morgan, whose side were looking to cement third place but went down 36-28 to Wigan, said: "We never really got chance to become front-runners.
"We made a lot of errors in our own half and gave away a lot of penalties in their half.
"We gifted them the opportunity to put some points on us. I thought the first 15 minutes of the game we deserved to be where we were.
"But then for the res
t of the first half and most of the second we were taught a lesson by a team that played with a little bit more vigour and energy than we did."
Wigan coach Brian Noble felt his team's victory was evidence that they they had coped admirably in a week full of negative headlines. The Warriors came out fighting after a turbulent seven days which saw Gareth Hock test positive for cocaine and the Wigan boss's own future at the club become the subject of much speculation.
Asked if he thought the off-field distractions had affected his side, Noble replied: "Of course, it was national headlines for goodness' sake so you can't hide the players from it.
"So you have to find a formula and they found a formula.
"The only way we'll be judged on writing this 2009 chapter for Wigan is through our performances on the field and I think we took some huge steps in making people realise we aren't going to go away."
The Wigan boss, who was clearly delighted to see his side return to winning ways after a humiliating defeat to Celtic Crusaders the previoustime out, thought his side could and should have put the game beyond doubt.
"It was a nervy finish and it shouldn't have been. We gave ourselves a shocking start and found ourselves 10-0 down and it looked like being one of those nights but we knew pretty much all week that we were determined to do well here.
"I knew that if we could get our fingers into the game we could compete and we did and we clawed our way back into the game and it should have been more comfortable at 60 minutes.
"And then we went away from what we were doing and let Hull KR back in."
