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

Dominant in the first half, having ran in three tries and established a 12-point lead inside 24 minutes, Saints looked firmly on course for victory. But their failure to rack up a big enough points advantage proved costly, as did mistakes early in the second half that Wigan eagerly capitalised on.

Coach Ian Millward said: "I thought we dominated the first half and the scoreline really flattered them. The second half was an even game. We could have done things a bit more clinically in the second half and if we had done we would have done the business".

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 - firstly from close-range and secondly after the scrum-half had carved open the heart of the Wigan defence.

Jon Wilkin, who again impressed for Saints, stretched the lead when he picked up a Wigan fumble 40 yards out and showed good pace to score in the corner.

Wigan looked despondent, but Mike Gregory's battling side got themselves back into contention with their inspiration coming from an unlikely source. Sub Danny Sculthorpe produced a defence-splitting, cut-out pass to send in young centre Kevin Brown for another try against his hometown club.

With steady rainfall making handling difficult, Saints were punished for errors early in the second-half. Sculthorpe knocked-on at the second tackle after the re-start and, after mounting pressure Danny Orr picked up and dived over between the sticks. Farrell converted and the game was all-square.

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

Another error from the re-start, this time on the first tackle, put Saints under pressure again and Wigan levelled with a controversial Terry Newton try awarded by the video referee, David Campbell.

With the game finely balanced at 20-20 tensions simmered and then exploded. A skirmish between Wilkin and Newton at a play-the-ball lit the fuse with players from both sides - notably Feaunati and Farrell - wading in before order was restored and the original combatants sin-binned.

With the game entering its final stages both sides pressed again with Saints having more of the ball and territory. But it was Wigan who 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 for the leveller.

Saints: Tries - Gilmour (2) Wilkin, Talau. Goals - Long (2). DG: Long.

Wigan: Tries - Brown, Orr, Newton.

Goals - Farrell (4). DG - Farrell.