I AM writing on the back of possibly the most appalling month in the club's past decade.

What I witnessed at Swansea was no commitment, no skill, no power, no individual talent and a distinct lack of any tackling or handling skills. What on earth is going on?

Firstly, the present coach will blame the result on lack of commitment (as he already has) and injuries. Both of these are surely justified. However, this happened last year and the year before.

The one great thing Wigan always had when they were winning championships was their ability in depth, so where is ours?

Why is strength in depth lacking at Saints? The money should be there. How can a club charge adults £9 per game and see the average crowd rise to more than 10,000 in 1996 and say the money is not there? At Swansea only two players shone through on what was a collectively dire performance - Brett Goldspink (a soon-to-be Wigan player) and Sean Long (an ex-Wigan player). Do we see a pattern here?

Perhaps I'm being hard, but just two players giving their all is not good enough. I'm sure most fans would have felt less disheartened if all the side had given the effort that we, as paying customers, deserve.

Unless players actually start earning their places, we will see the first division on the horizon, where there are more sheep than supporters, and I personally do not want to travel to Widnes when Wigan are stuffing Leeds or somebody else.

Michael Appleton, Bishop Road, St Helens.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.