Wire fan Rob Watson - aka Spirit of 55 - discusses the defeat to Wigan and Saturday's Challenge Cup Final...

The Super League slump continued with the defeat at Wigan.

The first half felt like somewhat of a meek surrender, perhaps a reflection of how much this run of league defeats has affected their collective confidence.

With all eyes now on Wembley, at least the second half at Wigan showed that they are still capable of competing with a top side.

The intensity and the purpose they had in defence and attack greatly improved after the break.

If this Super League season was cycle road race, it feels like Wire have tried to catch the breakaway leader, completely hit the wall and now look like they could be reeled in by the chasing pack.

At the moment it feels like they are crawling backwards into the play-offs, if they make it at all.

A couple of decent wins at the end of the season could yet turn around that feeling all together.

They could go into the play-offs with the confidence that they could still be as likely as anyone else to offer the main threat to St Helens.

Whether they have any success in the Challenge Cup is much more straightforward – far from easy, but beautifully simple. One game against the best team in the competition.

Fortunately, league form doesn’t count for anything apart from the impact it can have on confidence.

There is no doubt that Saints are better on paper but like all Challenge Cup Finals, this one will be played on grass.

Wire are clearly second-favourites, but bookies don’t decide who wins sporting contests, the matches have to be played.

As well as the spectacular dip in form, injuries have started to happen at just about the worse time of the season.

Normally I would be thinking of what team I would select for a final. In this case though there are so many injury doubts that it seems pointless me doing that.

When so many players are potentially missing, it is a good time to remind ourselves that the name on the back of the shirt is not as important as the badge on the front.

To have any chance of causing the big upset at Wembley it is really simple for Wire, they have to run harder and hit harder than they have all season.

They have to enjoy playing with the enthusiasm of underdogs and the belief of champions.