Best side won, but I thought we battled well and showed promise. I'm not sure we had a set of six for first fifteen minutes of second half.

We blew it with the amount of knock-ons, and maybe if we had put together a few sets, we would have given ourself a chance. On the whole, a good performance, and three wins out of the first four is a good start, particularly as one out of four was a realistic possibility.

The ref didn't help. He seemed to make some strange decisions. Eastmond's try seemed to be from an obstruction, and Meli's try was perhaps in touch. On the other hand, I would agree that Morton's try was from a forward pass. Morrisons attempt would have been interesting viewing on a video ref decision. I can see why it wasn't given, as I wasn't convinced, but a slow-mo might have resulted in a try.

What happened at the end? The full time whistle appeared to come when the ball was in play, as the hooter came when JD had the ball? Had we knocked on again?

Can't complain about the result. Saints had so much pressure and possession, and most years would have racked up a cricket score. Their body language wasn't good in the first half, and they looked a bulky, slow side compared to Wigan and Hull, who seem strong and mobile.

Will be a shame not to go to Knowsley Road anymore. The fans don't cause any problems, are loyal to their home town team, and it is a proper rugby ground. I hope they don't lose that when they go posh and all-seater.

sorry but blaymire was at fault for eastmonds try, murphy would of had him. ref was the same for both teams imo..gleeson not a quality centre ?? do you mean like atkins????

gleeson is ok with ball in hand, but his defence is awful, he can make the tackles when hes near them but gets pulled out of position. as for atkins yes he had a centres number on his back but he drove the ball up like a prop at times, so we didnt use him right. to describe them as quality centres is a bit over the top to me and shows the current state of the english game. as for blaymire what do you expect.

Well thats tough, it went over end of

Did not go last night so can't really comment but this i will agree with, good set the Saints lot and i like the old ground.

Only a slight glitch, going down to Saints on their patch by six points is nothing to be ashamed of. On hearing the match on the radio last night, all we need to do is just get shut of the silly mistakes our players were doing last night and take our frustration of this defeat out on fart-town next Saturday. Slight hiccup, that's all...

Thought the result was pretty fair myself, and at points during the second half we did well to not get blown away by them. Despite our 12-0 lead we where under the cosh for most of the first half, only really getting close to the line with our 2 breakaway tries and the kick that Morrison nearly got to that we got the repeat set.

2nd half we dug in well but Saints held the ball better than us and played the conditions. Would like to see the try they scored in the right hand corner as we watched from behind the sticks as it seemed for all the world to have taken the flag. Also the other try when the huge gap appeared right infront of the sticks looked a possible obstruction but would need to sell it again.

Think we need to get Murphy back at FB with Blanch replacing him on the wing. Agree with Mopsey about Gleeson's defence (positioning) being poor, think we maybe should give George a run there if it it doesnt improve. We seemed to let the ball bounce an awful lot, and also "let them have it" when the high ball went up, dont think it specifically cost us but its only a matter of time before it does.

Oh, and the kick appeared fine to me.
Edit: Just seen Meli's try on SSN and it was our man who cleanded the flag out.

In the first half after scoring two amazing tries we tried to score on every play, with a bit more composure trying to get repeat sets, we could have been 18/24-0 up. Then in the second half we couldnt keep hold of the ball and kept giving saints possesion, we should have won but in the end we were lucky it was so close with the amount of knock on's we did...

I know what you mean, in the end we didn't do enough in the game and so probably deserved to lose.

I do think though that we didn't get the rub of the green at crucial places in the game that may have turned things. The Morrison touchdown that wasn't given would have been interesting on a screen and potential obstructions in two of their tries. We also didn't capitalise when they were gash early on, Moore in particular bombed two chances - the knock on can't be helped (and we did drop a lot more ball than them generally), but going it alone on the break he made seemed the wrong option.

As for being under the cosh in the second half, we put ourselves under pressure with mistakes and penalties, but I think we also allowed them to play the ball too quickly when they were being allowed to lay on longer.

At 12-0 up, we had alot of ball but made silly errors. Morro nearly scored, Moore could have passed and effectively we let Saints off, who i thought looked pretty poor.

After that, we were penalised for all sorts. Our discipline wasn't great and whenever you allow Saints into a game, they'll destroy you. I'd say for about a 30 min period (end of 1st halve, start of 2nd) all we were doing was tackling and it took it's toll.

But that said, the lads showed pride, desire and commitment. Teams of the past might well have fallen away and allowed Saints to rack up 30+ points. This side has something about it, an honesty and seems to have a good mentality. When we got it back to 22-16, that was only our second set of 6 in St Helens halve in the second stanza.

We could easily have won last night, we just made far too many errors and lacked some discipline at important times. Maybe at 12-0 we could have showed some patience but there again it could easily have gone to 18-0 with the right pass. Good performance in defeat and something to build upon.

Yep - JD Knocked on - again!

I don't think patience is the thing here, we took chances and threw the ball about to go 12-0 up, 12 points was never ever going to be enough to beat them so we needed to continue playing. Our 2 tries where 'oppertunist' particularly the one on the last tackle, it came from disorganisation and a bit of broken play - but it was extremely well taken, we grasped the oppertunity and made them pay. We needed to continue to chance our arm a little in the first half, unfortunately for one reason or another it didnt work.

Agree about the honesty, feared the worst in the second half but the lads dug in real deep and never gave in. We are really close, all it needs is to cut out the errors early in the tackle count, stop the almost mandatory try from their hooker diving over the line and improve the defense and we have a formula that could get us well into the play offs if we remain injury free.

I can't believe that no-one has mentioned Pryce - the guy was fantastic!

In fact, all their 'special' players - Eastmond / Pryce / Cunningham / Graham - were superb all night and caused us all the problems we endured.

But as has been laboured on here - the knock-ons killed us. Too much defending against a side too good not to take at least some of the oppotunites gifted them. Culprits (I know it's tough when they ALL battled so hard), but JD and Sam's distribution from Hooker were to blame for most of the errors. I would especially note the Murphy knock-on that ultimately cost us a try - it was a terrible pass from Sam, rather than Aaron's fault.

So - a game we had hopes of has gone away, but there are far too many positives to be down-hearted. It was a tremendous game of rugby, highlighted by the amazing Morton score and those who saw it will only be fuelled by the frustration that, without those bloody knock-ons, we could have won.

As it was Saints were better controlled than us and deserved the win.

PS - wouldn't mind seeing the Eastmond try again - it did seem like obstruction at the time and would just like to know if it was or not!

Bring on the Midgets!

simply we gave a top team far too much possesion in our half of the field, and ultimately did well to defend the way we did. key moments for me were moore failing to pass when well supported, aarron murphy's knock on when we got the ball for first time in ages.

also morrissons attempt to ground the ball looked very close, and thought morton struggled to clear his in goal area, think blanch would probably have had the strength to do this(not a criticism he is only a young un and the strength will come) also he took his try brilliantly.

all in all very happy with the effort put in by all, just need to be a bit more clinical

agree alot of ball from acting half back was poor and caused knocks ons for Murphy and Morton, also in general play we were having to stop or redjust to take the ball.

Just as many positives as controversial decisions to take from this performance.A prodigious amount of tackling and overall a good defensive display augurs well for another 8 game winning run in regular Super League fixtures.Composure and patience will be required to break down the Huddersfiled defence and ball retention is a must.
Saint Helens have been there and done it - we are nearly there and can do it !
I thought Cunningham was the catalyst for their cohesion and their kicking game was effective.I thought the pitches drying out would see the best of Dale and Darryl but they continue to delight - I couldn't see the alleged forward pass in our try but I could for Saints,as well as the obstruction and some of their penalty awards were ludicrous.I also saw Wellens trip which was forgotten about as we scored a try.
I would much rather lose on a cold,wet February night when our players assist the opposition with possession and referee decisions assist with field position than in 6/7 months when it really matters.Saints have had more experience of wet-weather training with their appearances at Old Trafford and the experience to win games when not playing at the top of their game.I think this will prove to be an excellent learning curve for our players.
I shall now wait with anticipation for the match stats.and the camera coverage.

actually it was gleeson who lost the ball trying to play it and jd tried to play on and hide the error. he did knock on twice at play the ball though.

My summary of last night .... Korki and Tronc aside... we really did not seem to have any grunt compared with Saints...

To much reliance on Korki and Tronc for go forward no on else give us the size and bulk up front.

Why are we not playing King or even Bibb for that matter - Hendo runs his heart oout but isn't big enough to get go forward... Davey and Latu did well but can't comptete physically with the opposition.. JD had a shocker.

Graham - in particular, Fozzard, Clough and Faasavalu were the difference last night in the platform they laid for Eastmond and Pryce. The pressure of no go forward and constant defence added to the mistakes sums it up.. Sam Obsts distribution for 80 minutes was nothing short of attorcious

Don't want to criticise but feel selection cost us last night.

on the plus side Murphy and Morton were outstanding.

That sounds about right - apologies to JD for that one!

King & Johnson were both injured / poorly.
However would bibb have added anything that hendo would have.

Wouldnt think so, rather have hendo and bibb. Hendo tries

Pass to Meli was a mile forward and the 'goal', ball went wide of the post.

no the ball went through ok!

no, blaymire was at fault..stood and waited to see where he was going. murphy would have smashed him!

i was really proud of the guys effort on friday although at times we where poor with ball in hand lost count of amount of times we dropped ball on first or second taclke,and moore made a superb break and i think he diddnt know which way to pass and welans got him before he made his mind up.the morrison try was right in front of me and it looked like to a try to me and in second half players seemed to celabrate a try but nothing was given but was at other end so dont know what happend.what is others veiw on our second try i thought wellans should have gone for tripping murphy when he kicked on i know we scored but a trip is a trip.blaymire was at fault for eastmond try he stood and watched and feel murphy should have played at fb where he been playing so well with blanch coming in on wing and as i have said before morrison should be captain he does more to rally the boys than jd does and has much as love jd he wouldnt be in my starting line up at moment he not playing well enough.also does any body wonder whats going on at half time thats 3 out of 4 games where we have conceded first in second and all early on aswell