Their pack was bigger.
Their pack was spelled better.
Their 3/4 line is faster.

We was poor across the park and not completing a set of 6 enough and getting a good kicking game took its toll.
They made all of our team look bad, certain individuals more so:
Ratchford had a terribly game.
Sandow when he chose to kick, was too early in the tackle count and never found space.
Currie went into hiding.
No one in our team but Penny has the speed to match any of the Saints 3/4 line.
Tony Smith seems to have no sense of balance,we need to address this for 2017.
Toby errors are school boy. He was a great prospect before his injury, I don't think he is the answer at centre. I thought he might be, but tonight he convinced me not. Evans back in and give Lineham/Penny redemption.

As Andy Williams once sang.....where do I begin?

Standard of rugby (in general)
Pathetic. Had any Aussies been suffering from early morning insomnia, and decided to tune into THAT, they must have been laughing into their Fosters covered cornflakes. No wonder we haven't won a Test Series since 1970. Pathetic ball handling. Basics, that as a competition, we are lacking. No wonder there are many on here , saying the SL standards have dropped off, in the last decade.

Our 3/4 line
I've been saying for weeks, it's BLAND. Tonight was proof. Russell, bar a couple of dummy half runs, was he even on the pitch? Atkins took his try great, but sloppy, otherwise. Evans is not a winger, end of. King is not SL standard (yet), end of. Penny (and to some extent) Lineham, have to be re-introduced.

Sky's commentary "team". STROKERS. The amount of superlatives whenever Saints did anything was nauseating. Hemmings gets worse, with his anti Wire tosh...."THEY"VE KNOCKED ONNNNNNNNNNNNN" , should we make a mistake.

Bentham reffed the game OK for me. Stains slowed us down a bit, but we'd have done the same, if the boot was on the other foot.

Quick turn round. Not an issue. We didn't look tired at any time. We simply did nothing with that early pressure. Add to this, crap handling, and indiscipline, we got what we deserved.....NOWT.

The pass to evans for his no try was miles forward so justice was done. Hughes should get a rest for his attempted gouge. No place in the game for that

As for the eye gouge.....nah, not for me. Had that been on the floor, Stephenson would merely class that as a "facial".....and I've not got P&B tinted glasses on.

We now have no credible wingers... and just Ryan Atkins as a credible centre... its a good job we just haven't spent over 100k on a winger eh?

Ratchford at FB though..... he is utterly hopeless against half decent opposition.... twice he ran past people in the process of putting the ball down, waving his arms around like he was trying to flag a bus down (lets not talk about the charlie chaplin knock on near our line)... he is to blame for 3 tries tonight... and ultimately to blame for the defeat... its ok though, as sometimes he does something decent.

looked like he had a go at pinching around both eyes to me, you don't accidentally pinch your fingers around the eyes of another player.

Maybe time for a new coaching team if we don't win the challenge cup or fail again in the playoffs. Tony Smith has had more than enough investment in the playing roster, and the team seems to be going backwards. Yes we finished second in the league, and are in the CC final, but the competition this season has been poor throughout, highlighted by Hull winning the league and getting to the CC final, they aren't a particularly great team in my opinion.

Not sure, just think with the time he has had, he has failed to take us to the next level. Still think once Wigan get a few players back from injury they will have the better team despite having a poor manager, why is that...

Maybe the whole league just gone backwards as others have said and I am expecting too much, I shouldn't expect our backline to be able to execute simple moves near the opposition line.

Ridiculous statement. Since he took over 8 years ago we've been to 4 challenge cup finals, won the LLS, appeared in 2 Grand Finals and for every year we didn't make a final we at the very least made a semi final. Put that much success up against anything any coach has ever done for us.

Some ridiculous overreactions on here tonight. Remember the team had 4 days to prepare for this game compared with 2 weeks for Saints and we only narrowly got beaten! All is not lost!

We have also had the most investment in the playing roster out of any team over the last ten years I imagine... and we don't have the major trophy to show for it, the grand final.

Wigan have won it in that time, as have Leeds and Saints. Why haven't we?

It doesn't matter what coaches in the past have done, he has had long enough in the job now, and maybe it's too long. Possibly need a fresh face if we want to get the monkey off our back.

Thought Sandow and Gidley went very quiet in the second half, also Ratchford always seems to come up with a few errors in most matches.

I imagine Salford have invested more in transfer fees.

Talk about knee jerk reaction, I can't stop laughing at this.

Anyone who expected a Wire win tonight has not been watching us for long enough. Our pack was light weight and lacked aggression. Despite Sim's huff and puff, no menace. God only knows how we will miss Ben Westwood. Cooper will be a welcome return.

The biggest problem is the 3/4 they are slow and offer little threat. These need replacing as they would not trouble a Saints, Wigan or Hull 17.

Toby King
Rhys Evans
Matt Russel (at wing)

Whilst we are at it, Wilde. Far too small.

We haven't got the team to win the SL this season I don't feel. If we win at Wembley you can forget it.

im very thankfull for what smith has done for us... we have won cup finals at wembley and ive had some of the the best night of my life there.

i think he has gone on too long though.... i wanted a change at the end of last season..... but we have given him a new contract, so here we are.

i remember him saying 'i dont coach the attacking plays, i leave that up to the players'...thats great when you have Briers, Monaghan and Hodgson.... not so great when you're saying 'ok sandow, just do what you can mate.'

im a massive pessimist by nature... but he keeps getting out coached by Cunningham and long...2 men that look like they are fresh out of the Beano.

i would swap him in a heartbeat for Darryl Powell.

In what way is it knee jerk, I have been thinking about Tony Smiths position at the club for at least 2 years... Maybe its because we were so bad for so long, but considering the investment, we don't have the big prize to show for it.

I hope you keep your sense of humour when we again fail in the playoffs.

If he was at Wigan, Leeds or Saints their fans would be questioning why we keeping failing at the final hurdle, but its ok because its just Warrington I guess.

Tony Smith has proven he can win a SL title, and win CC finals. The big blows this season are Lineham being terrible and Dodds breaking his leg.

You mean like Saints have been saying about Cunningham all year or the goons wanting Wane out, so we are in the CC final and for me we will be in the 4 come the end of the 8's but this obviously not good enough for you, so who do you want to replace him with, I stand by my statement.

The CC final albeit great, was reached by beating Oldham, Widnes and Wakefield, so we cannot read too much into that. The GF is the big prize but I don't think this side has the strength across the park to do it.

we dont have the tactical nouse to win the GF IMO.

for me, every year this side looks more disjointed..... singing brilliant players on massive wages will almost certainly win you alot of games and put you right up there.... it wont deliver the big prize though.

im really hoping we win the challenge cup, as i think we will fold in the big games leading up to the GF... like we did tonight.

He has had 8 years at the club, and hasn't won a grand final. And we don't look like winning one this year, as soon as Wigan get some of their 7 injured players back, they will be to much for us, thats if a mediocre Saints team doesn't beat us first. The trophies this season are there for the taking, but we are just not well coached enough, or we haven't recruited well enough to dominate. Our backline look like they have never played on the same pitch before and we are at the business end of the season.

No getting to the CC final after beating no one of note, and finishing in the top 4 isn't good enough after the huge investment in the club.

If we finish this season trophyless it is time for him to go, but obviously he won't be leaving.

Good post. If it's on offer, I'll take a wembley win over a GF appearance.

TS has little sense of balance. Been on this agenda all year. Pack too light and he has little idea of a balanced 3/4 line.

Pretty much "nail on the head" there, deckchair.

The blame for this, lays firrmly with Smith. We have proven try scorers in Penny and Lineham, yet they can't get a game, and he plays non wingers, as wingers. Baffling.
As for Ratchford, he was poor tonight, but he suffers from his utility value.
When will coaches get some balls, and drop players, instead of playing "names" just so they"get a game". As a nation, we saw this only a few weeks ago in the Euros. Wayne Rooney, FFS.

me and you have become alarmingly close in our assessment of this tenure ducky.... which probably speaks volumes.

By the worst Saints side for at least 15-20 years.

If that was Hull or Wigan, they would have stuck 50 on Saints tonight, not been beaten by 2 points. But the difference with Warrington is that when we come against a really poor side, we end up sinking to that level ourselves.

Regardless of whether we had 5 days rest, and they had 2 weeks rest, Saints were far from the "Entertainers" tonight and were there for the taking, and once again, we didn't take it.

I wasn't confident before the game, so the result isn't a surprise to me, however I'm very disappointed in the way the result happened. We should have won that game, but our inability to step it up against a poor team cost us, just like it has done several times this season.