Last updated 11:38, Friday, 16 May 2008

WIGAN coach Brian Noble claimed, figuratively speaking, that Whitehaven would arrive at the JJB for Monday night’s game armed with baseball bats.

No way through: Whitehaven’s Howard Hill is tackled in the game against Wigan Warriors as team-mate Ryan McDonald

As it turned out, Haven would have struggled to dent the rampant Warriors if they had turned up bearing bazookas and backed up by a battalion of Gurkha Rifles.

Little did many Haven fans realise at the time, but the seeds of their record 106-8 hammering were sown the previous week in Cardiff.

Wigan were humiliated by local rivals St Helens 57-16 at Millennium Magic weekend, live on Sky Sports.

And they spent a fair proportion of their matchday magazine for the delayed Challenge Cup clash discussing it. Coach Brian Noble, skipper Sean O’Loughlin and chief executive Joe Lydon all waded in.

Noble even criticised un-named Wiganers in the run-up to the game, claiming some thought they were better than they really are.

It’s rare for a figure of Noble’s stature to make such a bold public statement, and it was an indication of how badly the Saints’ result stung.

Wigan were undoubtedly a team on a mission on Monday, and it would be surprising if they don’t continue their good work tonight, again on TV, against Super League rivals Warrington.

Despite Haven suffering a three-figure drubbing for the first time in their history, I detected none of the gloom that followed previous heavy defeats at the JJB.

I was at the new stadium in 2000 when Kevin Tamati’s Haven went down 98-4. Now THAT was a miserable day. Haven boss Ged Stokes emerged from Monday’s mauling with great credit. He had known that his team could face a Wigan backlash and was utterly supportive of them post-match, publicly and privately.

It was a big call for Stokes to claim that Haven’s Ade Adebisi had been the best winger on the pitch. But it was just further confirmation, if it were needed, that the Londoner has been a fantastic signing.

Stokes might not be as forgiving if Haven falter at Batley on Sunday, in their return to NL1 action.

But like Wigan after their mauling by Saints, Haven will not require much motivation to fire back to winning ways. Batley beware.

Martin Morgan