Blew it, simple as.

Looking back at it we bombed so many chances we should’ve easily won, and yet again a hit and miss kicker misses a vital kick, can’t bag him though coz Westwood was the best on the field by a country mile.

The hoodoo continues though because clear, concise thinking on display against every other team, including Pies, goes completely out of the window against Saints.

Any other game and Hicks would’ve had 3 tries instead of the ball being passed into touch. Foster’s 2nd try (Wilkin offside by the way), would never have happened coz somebody would’ve belted it down field on the 5th.

Matt King may as well have had butter on his hands. I’d like to think these things would rectified, but the one thing I have learnt in all the despair of these games, that as soon as we see that Red V clear and concise thinking seems to go out of the window

If anything Matt King tried too hard and paid the consequences. TS talks a lot about playing with composure, with
a bit more we would have converted some of those chances we squandered. Great game though. Benny Westwood, my man of steel. Pat Richards - bo%%ocks!! Benny plays 80 minutes in the middle and kicks the goals
and scores the tries. Fantastic display from a fabulous player.

I agree we did blow it and I saw nothing to make me think we won't blow it again next time we meet. It was very dissapointing to see Saints adopt a very simple tactic of having Wellens on Graham's shoulder breaking through the centre of the field with relative ease at least 3 or 4 times. Their try direct from the scrum was shocking defence. They also created overlaps in the first half with ease on their right wing.

We are looking at 3 wins from 6 now. Hope the wheels havent come off.

Should never have let that first try in very poor defence and the pass from Pryce for the second try looks forward.

They haven't.

Never in the history of RLFans, has so much sense been said in the space of one paragraph.
An 11 year old could see Stains tactics of Wellens cutting through the middle, off a short pass from tantrum-boy, yet our team/coaching staff can't see it.

I wouldn't mind, but Wellens has been doing this to us for years. Who'd have thought he'd do the same thing again, 3 TIMES in the same match.

Strong words, but we weren't good enough for the 2 points. Stains took their chances, we blew loads.

We can blow it out of our bottoms, about how great we've become, but the simple fact remains, we STILL can't beat a(depleted) Stains side.

I'm SICK of heroic defeats.

Time to deliver, Warrington.

They did deliver last year.

And they can this year.

Keep the faith

Great game and spectacle. We can't blame the loss on James Graham's fat ginger head, Paul Clough's man boobs, Gardners crap chinstrap beard or alibert's combover. Unfortunately we can only blame ourselves for not taking the 3 chances towards the end.

Maud's working late tonight, so gives me chance to re-watch the game. Not seen it yet.

Sorry, Wire85, but bar Wigan a fortnight ago, this side has not delivered this season. Yes, we've improved greatly, but we STILL can't beat Stains. Leeds have done the double on us...again. Are we good enough to beat the big boys...yes, but we're not doing it on the level expected for a side of this ability.

I'm frankly getting a little sick of hearing "we're going to do Stains at Wembly/Grand Final....because we owe them one". NO, RUGBY LEAGUE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. You win cups/games by scoring more points on the day than the opposition, not because we've had some narrow defeats. The laws of probability don't dictate who win games. It's the final score.

We need to stop burying our heads in the sand, and saying we'll do them in the final.

Come on players, let's start winning games against Stains and Leeds. If we're going to win pots this season, we'll be playing them. Time to deliver for THIS season.

FAITH IS BEING KEPT

Watching some of the highlights of the game and was wondering how much of the poor execution of some of the attacking plays which resulted in passes beign thrown behind wingers was a mental result of the "try" Hicks never scored at Wigan for the borderline forward pass. Just a thought (but the reality should be if the playmaker was playign safe the winger should have been as well)

Not on your nelly!

2nd in the league ahead of Saints and Leeds plus 80 mins from defending the Challenge Cup at Wembley

We are in a very good place to deliver.

Let's remember where we have come from.

Watch it frame by frame one eye.

I would put the screen caps up but they will only get taken down

I dont understand it......?

we have beaten the only team above us at their home ground.....who cares about the teams below us.....?

apparantly the big four is now only the big three (which doesnt include us by the way)...Leeds are 5th and could quite easily finish 7th.....

we shouldnt be bothered with having to beat certain teams
why is no one getting on the not winning in france bandwagon..when was the last time we won there for example....

i'm sure if we miss out on second spot everyone will point to Saturdays game against Saints as the one that cost us but in my opinion the shambles in France will have done it for me....

we are a good goal kicker away from winning these close games....that was Jonathan Davies' immediate impact on Warrington in 1994, Maybe Hodgson will do it for us ?

Last season (well in spain if we want to be pedantic)

Can't believe the pessimism on here or, for that matter, those that seemingly think they know better than Tony Smith. The game was won and lost by a very fine margin, no need for any inquisition.

I too agree that it matters not which teams you do/don't beat. In fact are you not more likely to lose to the other teams around you on the table? It is not rocket science. They are as good, if not better, than us on the day and this is how we came to lose the 2 points.

I can see where people are coming from that we still lack a bit of consistency but NONE of the teams have been super consistent this season. ALL teams have had some shockers. Wigan being the one with the slightly more consistent approach and hence their top spot position.

Honestly I have found SL this year to be exciting and at times quite breathtaking. THAT is what I pay my money for. 2 seasons ago we beat Leeds at home (still remember Mitchell's try) and we achieved nothing else. This year we have our sights on 2nd, a semi final I am drooling about and a damn sight more team spirit.


Enjoy.

you couldn't make this up.

Huddersfield 4 Warrington 60 in particular was an example of failing to deliver yet again.


Cullens Pants or LWF written all over this poster.

Any Wires fan who hasn’t enjoyed this season is a damned fool, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t one or two causes for concern at the minute, especially when it comes to this lamentable record against Saints. Yes, Saturday’s game was a “classic”, as was the 2-point loss at home to Wigan in February, and yes, both games could have gone either way and there’s not much between the teams, etc, but why does it always go against us where Saints are concerned?

I totally agree with Lefty Goldblatt’s sentiments that it’s no good assuming we’re going to beat Saints at Wembley or in the last game at Knowsley Road or at Old Trafford, for no other reason than “because it’s meant to be”. No it it flamin' well isn't - life just doesn’t work like that and it’s basically reached the point now whereby in order to have a chance of winning a major trophy, we have to avoid Saints in, or en route, to the finals.

Do you think we’d have won at Wembley last year if Huddersfield hadn’t turned Saints over in the semis? I certainly don’t and it will be no different if Saints and Wires make the final this year, just like I don’t think it’ll be any different at Knowsley Road or Old Trafford in the play-offs. Obviously we are going to beat them one day, but with our record, no one can state with any confidence that it’ll be this year, solely on account of their own misguided blind faith. It makes me sick, but if Leeds don’t win on Saturday, Sunday will lose some of its magic for me as the red “V” looming on the horizon will ruin the rest of my August.

We have played some great rugby this year and had some outstanding individual and team performances, but until we bury this hoodoo once and for all, I think it’ll cost us trophies and our sanity. Can anyone think of two competitive teams from the elite tier of any sport where one has such a superior record over the other? I really can’t. It needs to change, because it runs deeper than just back luck.

Bang on!Monsieur Invisible. Bang on!

We don't have a divine right to beat Stains, just because we have been "knocking at the door" of beating them for the last 5 or 6 years. Truth is, we've come up that little bit short in the majority of the games. If we start believing that "we owe them one" or it's "fate that we're going to beat them at Wembley", we might as well start believing that the Earth is flat, and that Horoscopes are correct.

P.S. I'M NOT A PESSAMIST. I'M A REALIST. There is a massive difference

It was lost by a very fine margin, but to a very much weakened saints team. If that game was played by a full stregth saints team i wouldn't be so disappointed. The teams that matter, have the measure of us.

[/u

Again, spot on Gary Numan

If we want to win pots, we have to beat the teams that matter. We've beaten Wigan, impressively. We've got to do the same now, against Stains and Leeds. The Leeds one recently, was again a case in point. Quite handicapped by several big name stars missing, they still came to the HJ and took the points.

Are the team nervous, or a we just not good enough to get that extra 5% to beat these teams.

There's no point in having the old fashioned " oh, it'll all be allright in the end" attitude. I'd like to believe Smith isn't one of these people, and I don't think he is. But we've got to START beating Stains (and Leeds) regularly.

Heroic defeats....we seem to be very good at them

Lefty Goldblatt (or whatever Cullens Pants is called this time) and Monsieur Invisible are entitled to their opinion but the current Warrington team is incomparable to the Warrington team that has failed consistently to beat St Helens.

Over the period of that record we have never finished as high as we will do this season and have never won any trophies.

This team under Tony Smith has already won a trophy. I cannot believe how some Warrington fans just aren't happy without something to moan about.

If you had told me last year that we would be second in the league, and in another semi, I would have taken that.
Against Wigan at the HJ, we were leading 16 points to 4 until Briers went off and we had a mad 13 minutes before Monas came back on.
At KR we scored the same number of tries as Saints, but the goalkicking let us down.
Against Leeds, we had them beaten at half time then let them back into it.

On Saturday, we allowed Saints to play the ball too quickly and it killed us down the middle. All good teams, including Saints slow the PTB down and reset their defence. I know a lot of people don't like it, especially when Wigan do it, but it is effective and within the laws of the game. Our PTB is still not fast enough.
We could go on nit picking, but we are still second and at Widnes on Sunday. Considering where we were when TS arrived, I'd call it a near miraculous transformation.
Give us a goalkicker next season, and who knows.
It is better to travel than arrive!