Wire fan and author Rob Watson has his say on Thursday’s win over St Helens…

THAT was great fun to watch – the sort of performance that we are never quite sure if Wire are capable of.

Can they go toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in a contest where both are confident that if they keep doing what they are doing their opponents will crack first?

On this occasion, Wire certainly did that.

So often in the past in games like this there is one or two moments that swing the result against them, but this time that moment never came.

Instead, it was Wire who produced the one moment to win the game, Ratchford’s long cut out pass sending Lineham racing clear down the touchline and Currie supporting on the inside to finish off the try.

At times, this season the defence has not looked as strong as it has been in previous years. It would be incredibly difficult to criticise it on this occasion though.

So much of defence is about attitude and that was in evidence as Wire fought so hard to keep St Helens out for the full 80 minutes.

Saints were made to look blunt in attack –they will no doubt be disappointed with the lack of creativity they showed, but at least some of the credit for that deserves to go to Wire’s defence.

Wire seem to know how to beat St Helens. Viewing it simply it is like watching the playground bully get stood up to – Wire not letting Saints assert their usual dominance down the middle and Saints not being able to respond to that.

At times Wire’s attack looked too focused on going down the middle, focussing on just a few yards either side of the play the ball.

Perhaps that is part of the reason for their success against St Helens though, that having the follow-on effect of tiring out the Saints players who normally dominate down the middle when they are attacking.

Once again Wire have shown that they can beat St Helens. What they would like to do now is show they can be as consistent as Saints are throughout a season and to be able to turn in a performance like that when it matters most at the end of the year.

Like so many previous seasons, this one for Wire is so far looking like a rollercoaster one, with the hope being that they can be at one of the highs come the last couple of games of the season.

Hopefully, this performance will help give them the confidence to make the highs last long and the drops to not be so dramatic.