We've had the rough end of a poor decision that's cost us silverware. It's 18-4 in the record books, that's all that's relevant, and our names on the cup with 2019 against it.

And oddly enough one person alleged to have done so by the folk of Redvee, has disappeared from our board since Saturday afternoon.

On the train coming home today I was sat near two Saints fans and between them they mentioned 14 times that it would have been a different game if that Knowles try had been given! (And yes I counted!) Now I’m a gentle giant kind of guy and a Widnes fan to boot but eventually I suggested to them if they didn’t want a cheap shot across the jaw like the one Toby King got late on in the game that went unpunished they should shut the...... up!! Fortunately it worked! Talk about bitter!!

i reckon i would enjoy a pint with you Al

Just had a great text from a friend of mine saying that Saints fans are now claiming that Cootes conversion went right between the sticks and the scandalous almost cheating linesman not allowing it have cost them the game! In that heat and those conditions to be within one score it would’ve been a completely different game!!

No allegedly about it mate....seen it with my own eyes.

Could never get him off here leading up to the game!!!!

Blaming our water carriers on there now,wonder who will be next.

It'll be Westwood's fault next!

Brexit

Thatchers Britain

Maybe if T-mak just slid over the line from 5 yards out instead of being a pathetic show pony with his usual dive, then they might have scored early in the second half. Yesterday was the greatest day of my life(and I have told my children this!!)

Well that’s you off the kids Xmas list lol

I'd have a lot more sympathy for the saints club about the officiating if they had also complained about the officiating when they benefitted from a massive forward pass in our recent league encounter!

I'm not sure about all the calls, as has been mentioned a none try on the 3rd minute doesn't explain their game going to pot. Lineham scored a legitimate try though and a definite yellow for a swinging arm on Toby King was also missed.

Out of interest, what minute was the swinging arm in?

Was late on. 71 mins just before Clark put em to bed.

In the last quarter of the game Walmsley did a six foot move off the mark on his knees ,after the tackle but before standing to ptb.

My impression was there were a lot of late 3rd man flops from Saints but as no one else has mentioned it maybe it was my P ‘n B specs!

What about the Walmsley shoulder charge that wasn't given also or does that not fit the narrative of the the whole world being against Saints?

they have done that and got away with it for the last couple of seasons

The officials haven't been great for a long time, it's not gonna change so lets just leave it at that. It's the same conversations about the same things every year

I posted a congratulations post on here and have been enjoying the sunshine since. I should take it as a compliment that you're complaining that I've not posted since Saturday I guess



As for the other allegations, can I just clarify that I've not sent anyone death threats. My tweet was a jokey reference to the PR spin they did midweek about his death threat from the Warrington fan, nothing more sinister than that. I thought putting the 'kindly worded' bit would make that clear but obviously through the cold anonymity of a tweet a few people didn't understand the reference as they haven't got the intelligence to or hadn't seen the piece on Hicks. Perhaps a winking emoji might have helped as well, but I guess I've learned my lesson. I've had several 60 year olds who shouldn't be allowed near the internet hounding me all weekend and one of them threatening to poison my dogs as she knows where I live and they bark too loudly and smell bizarrely enough (I don't have dogs).



My thoughs on the game haven't changed. You were brilliant and deserved to win. We were awful and thoroughly deserved to lose. Hicks panicked and blew his day in the sunshine and that should cost him the Grand Final gig. I think it's clear the standard of the officials is grating everyone and whilst everything is hilarious because you won on Saturday, if you lost the Grand Final to Saints or Wigan after Hicks didn't refer a clear Wire try upstairs you'd be exactly the same. Sam Tomkins not getting sent off is still mentioned bi-weekly at kids football training for example, as this one will be on the parks and fields of St Helens for the next 12 years until we reach another final.

Peace chaps, I'll be back to discuss our mental frailties as we get near the play offs. First got to see if we can become the first club to break a 120 odd year old record for league performance and still end the season with no trophies.

He did everything but panic. He gave what he saw, which was a knock-on by Knowles, and got on with the game.

To panic would have been to go to the screen when he had the best view in the ground. And to be fair since Knowles didn't even claim a try he had no reason to.

Slight correction here. Absolutely nothing wrong with a wall of obstruction provided those players get there before the attackers. As long as they don't deliberately move to block the run of the attacker it's fine. If they get there first and just stand there it's good defending. As it is when defenders run slowly towards the catcher, as long as they don't look where the attackers are and block them it's fine. Obviously, normal rules about obstruction then kick in when the player catches the ball, if he uses the shield to dodge the chasers or runs into them stopping a chaser tackling him then it would be a penalty.

I don't agree. Wilkin summarised that well, he's trying to show he's assertive and confident and just messed it up. I think he's trying to reference that by sending Lineham's upstairs, he didn't want to be blamed. His approach was clearly to have an open, attractive final with as few penalties as possible, which is admirable, but he allowed some truly blatant stuff to go on and had little control over the game generally. A good referee clamps down on the obvious stuff that has an impact on the game and ignores the stuff that has no impact on how the play develops. I'm not suggesting that caused the outcome BTW, I've already said you thoroughly deserved the win.

I would have been annoyed if we were on the end of that decision but saints had enough on that pitch to win that game regardless of that decision.
Saints were over playing from kick off. They were trying to do everything at 100mph and trying to score every time they had the ball. On the other hand most of our sets we just wanted to get to the kick and chase it. We were quite happy to concede metres as long as our line was intact.
I suspect there will be calls for teams to be able to refer a decision upstairs rather than rely on the ref to send it to the VR.