ST HELENS' Challenge Cup Final success against Hull at Wembley on Saturday is poignant in one small way for Warrington Wolves.

It means that for two successive seasons Wolves have gone out of the competition to the eventual winners, with the margin of defeat in all games between the sides getting ever narrower.

One way to look at it is that it took the best team in the cup to once again deny Warrington knockout honours.

Not that many supporters will take any consolation from that.

We'll never know whether it would have been Wolves facing Saints at Wembley had they managed to avoid their enemies in the earlier rounds, or even that Warrington would have gone on to reach the final had they defeated Saints in the fifth round at Knowsley Road.

But what I do know is that Saints are the new Wigan - the team that everyone outside of Central Park loved to hate.

Remember the 1980s and early 1990s when the pie eaters dominated rugby league, with a run that included eight successive Challenge Cup Final appearances that, quite honestly, became boring from the monotony.

Wigan had some kind of a hold over Warrington in those days, always managing to produce the goods on the big occasion and depriving Wolves of Challenge Cup, Regal Trophy, Lancashire Cup and Premiership Trophy silverware in finals in various seasons.

It became Wolves' greatest challenge each campaign - beat Wigan and the fans will be happy.

Although Saints have not managed eight years on the trot, they have now become only the second team to have won the Challenge Cup three years on the bounce and have been the most consistent force of Super League since it began in 1996.

And they hold an Indian sign over Wolves, just as Wigan did, but in both league and cup.

There was a familiar feel to the way Saints disposed of Hull in Saturday's close final, such is the belief in their abilities.

A great fight back put Hull 12-10 in front with 15 minutes to go but Saints, just as they have done against Warrington so many times in recent seasons, found a way to pull victory out of the bag in the late stages.

I feel pretty sure I'm not the only one with Warrington blood who saw that coming?

And, knowing what was to come, I felt the pain for all those Hull fans who were dancing with delight after going two points ahead and thinking they had got the measure of their opposition.

Warrington fans have been there before, more times than they would care to remember.

Wigan's monopoly of the honours fell away as more and more clubs followed their 'full-time' path and caught them up.

Saints are doing what they are doing from a much more level playing field, with salary caps in place.

At the moment, it is difficult to see who is going to stop their 21-match unbeaten run.

It will certainly take a champion effort to defeat a team of players that also appear to have 'Grand Final winners 2008' stamped on their foreheads.