Saints 34

Wigan 38

LOSING to Wigan has become something of a bad habit for Saints.

Five out of the past six encounters have gone the Warriors' way but Saints will view Friday's defeat as one that got away.

They tossed aside a 20-point lead to gift their fierce rivals an unlikely victory and worryingly the champions now occupy a place outside the top six, which is a first for this stage of a Super League season.

Ironically, helping to turn the tide against a Saints side containing many of his boyhood heroes was St. Helens teenager Kevin Brown, who grabbed two tries for the Warriors.

But at one stage Saints were on fire, showing shades of the form that blitzed Bradford and Castleford in those heady early spring days.

Martin Gleeson was first on the score sheet 50 seconds into the game after Saints had regathered from the kick-off.

Chris Joynt then combined well with Ade Gardner, who sent Paul Wellens hurtling over.

Wellens, restored to the full back slot after starting last week on the bench, had a fine game and his last-gasp defence rescued Saints on a number of occasions throughout the 80 minutes.

A Paul Sculthorpe penalty stretched Saints' lead to 14 points and at that stage they had the game under control.

It is hard to put your finger on the precise moment it began to fall apart. But there were a couple of things that helped breathe life and self-belief into the Warriors.

The substitution of four members of the pack that had helped create the early platform did not help matters and Saints lost quite a bit of their shape once Keith Mason, Keiron Cunningham, Darren Britt and Darren Smith left the park after 20 minutes.

Nevertheless, Saints went 20-0 ahead with a try from substitute forward Barry Ward, who rumbled his way over, but the jitters were beginning to set in.

A penalty, which should have been punched deep into the Wigan half to settle those nerves and help Saints kill the game, failed to find touch and four minutes later the Warriors were celebrating their first try of the night.

It was a scrappy one which started the Wigan points whirlwind. With substitute Luke Robinson smuggling the ball out of a tackle, Brown picked up and flicked it out to David Hodgson, who crossed in space as Saints players stood still waiting for a knock on decision.

After a temporary break in play while Danny Sculthorpe and Stuart Jones were sin-binned for fighting, Wigan pegged another six points back when Terry Newton sent Robinson over for the first of his hat-trick.

Three minutes after the restart, Brown picked up a pass from off his boot to nip in for his first try and then Wigan went ahead when Robinson touched down from second rower Nick Graham's angled grubber.

At this stage the Wigan pack were well on top - effortlessly marching upfield to give Adrian Lam acres of space in which to work his magic.

Brown grabbed his second try after a long ball from Lam and then the influential Papua New Guinean skipper hoofed an inch perfect 40/20 to create the perfect platform for Robinson to go over from the scrum.

With a quarter of the game to go, Gardner grabbed a score to start the Saints comeback.

But despite two tries by Darren Smith, a Farrell penalty rendered Sculthorpe's late missed conversion insignificant.

After the game Saints coach Ian Millward said: "We were playing outstandingly at 20-0 but then they came up with a couple of tries.

"But with that lead we should have won. We have got to turn these periods in which we play well into 80 minutes.

"We can't afford too many more losses and certainly can't afford to give up leads like that."

Saints: Paul Wellens; Anthony Stewart, Martin Gleeson, Paul Newlove, Ade Gardner; Paul Sculthorpe, Sean Long; Darren Britt, Keiron Cunningham, Keith Mason, Mike Bennett, Chris Joynt, Darren Smith. Subs: Jason Hooper, Barry Ward, Mick Higham, Stuart Jones.

Attendance: 12, 827