Saints 21

Wigan Warriors 21

A LATE drop goal by Sean Long provided the final twist of a fierce 'derby' thriller and preserved his side's unbeaten run.

But Saints will rue having let this encounter scale such dramatic heights.

Saints, dominant in the first half having ran in three tries and established a 12-point lead within 24 minutes, looked in a position where they could have made the outcome easily predictable.

Yet, their failure to rack up a big enough points advantage in the end cost them, as did mistakes early in the second half that Wigan capitalised on. And so Saints were forced to scrap all the way to the death to take something from a tension-packed, blood and thunder spectacle.

Andrew Farrell opened the scoring with a penalty on four minutes before Lee Gilmour responded with a brace of tries against his old club. Both times he was fed by Long.

Impressive Jon Wilkin stretched the lead when he picked up a Wigan fumble 40 yards out and showed good pace to score in the corner.

Mike Gregory's battling side put themselves back in the game when substitute Danny Sculthorpe produced a defence-splitting cut out pass that sent in young centre Kevin Brown for a try against his hometown club.

In rainy conditions, Saints were punished for errors early in the second half when Danny Orr dived over between the sticks. Farrell converted and the score was all square.

Paul Wellens then produced a brilliant round-the-man pass that sent Willie Talau to the line to put Saints back in front.

But an error on the first tackle after the restart again put Saints under pressure and Wigan levelled with a Terry Newton try.

With both sides locked at 20-20 tensions simmered and then exploded. Wilkin and Newton's skirmish kicked things off - before other players ran in and blows started flying. Feaunati got stuck in, Farrell followed, as did Saints' Sculthorpe. Both Wilkin and Newton were yellow-carded and the flashpoint went on report.

A degree of composure was restored and Wigan broke the deadlock with a Farrell drop goal on 71 minutes.

A game as thrilling as this though deserved a grandstand finish and Long supplied it inside the last two minutes, taking the ball from acting half back and striking it through the posts.

Saints: Wellens; Albert, Hooper, Talau, Feaunati; Sculthorpe, Long; Fozzard, Cunningham, Edmondson, Gilmour, Joynt, Wilkin. Subs: Gardner, Higham, Bibey, Mason.

Wigan: Radlinski; Aspinwall, Wild, Brown, Dallas; O'Loughlin, Orr; O'Connor, Newton, Pongia, Cassidy, Tickle, Farrell. Subs: M Smith, C Smith, Hock, Sculthorpe.

Attendance: 15,964