Ardent Wire fan Rob Watson gives his take on his side's latest defeat.

IT was safe to say that optimism was not filling the air as we gathered at the away end of the comically named ‘Totally Wicked’ Stadium.

For half an hour though, The Wire held their own and kept the game scoreless. Just when we were starting to dream that they were about to find a way to end the winless start to the season, three Saints tries in about six minutes created an eighteen-point lead.

The first try came when Russell failed ground the ball in his own in goal area as he attempted to deal with a grubber kick, the third when Evans made a rare poor defensive decision allowing Percival a gap to run through to create a long range try. In between those two, Saints scored an excellent try when Wire did not do a lot wrong.

After the break, Wire did show some signs of determination to get back into the game and did indeed score the first try of the half when Gidley crashed over from short range.

Immediately after that, Wire were again close to the Saints line, a second try at that point would have got them truly back into the game. Instead of a try came a forward pass and the pressure on Saints was relieved and Wire’s moment had gone.

It’s a sign of just how bad things are at the moment that a twenty-five point defeat against an average at best St Helens side could be seen as an improvement, but I did feel there was definite improvements from the week before.

Defensively they looked reasonably sound and they went forward better when they had the ball. In terms of having a bit of direction in attack Brown, Gidley and Ratchford seemed to all take it upon themselves to try and make sure the team had some guidance. Having too many people do that is certainly better than no one doing it.

Brown seemed to spend a lot more time at first receiver than normal, helping to keep the team ticking over rather than waiting out wide to add finishing touches to a move.

At one point leading up to the Wire try, Gidley and Brown were almost literally fighting over who would be at first receiver. Whilst the attack was still far from being where we would all like it to be, it was at least good to see players taking responsibility for making it better.

The most glaring weakness in this performance was the attack close to their opponent’s line, the all-important part of the game that turns pressure into points.

They look easy to defend against at the moment, with it being too obvious who the next pass is going to. It makes me appreciate the days of Briers at half-back, Waterhouse as a lead runner and Hodgson out the back.

Overall the obvious thing missing from Wire now is confidence, especially when passing the ball, but it’s effecting their whole performance.

Conceding the first try or two seems to have way too much of an effect on their belief in themselves, the sort of thing you might expect of an under 10s team rather than a Super League team.

It’s crazy that a team that was two games away from winning the treble last year can be so low on confidence already in this season. True belief in yourself is not effect so easily by a few setbacks.

In a team sport, the added aspect is believing in your teammates too. Now is the time for Wire players to really show they believe in themselves and each other.

I think back to a game in 2012 when Wire hammered Leeds at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the summer, as the tries kept being scored the Leeds players gathered behind the try line and they formed a circle each time a sign of togetherness and belief in difficult times.

Of course later on that year, Wire faced Leeds again, this time at Old Trafford in the Grand Final and a much more in-form Leeds were victorious. If they had fallen to pieces during the bad times they would never have had that ultimate good time.

It is easy to have great team spirit, confidence and enthusiasm when things are going well, truly great sides are the ones that can keep all three of them when things are going badly.