I am very happy with the win, I think it will do the confidence the world of good. I think the narrow defeats to Hull, Bradford, Catalan Dragons earlier in the season (all games where we were in winnable positions) really dented the confidence of the players following a good start.

I thought against Bradford there were signs that things were getting better. There was bit more bite back in the defence. The problem in that game was the attack didn't fire right and some bad decisions were made at key times for various reasons which cost us any chance of a victory. Arguably the performance against Leeds in the cup a few weeks back was a lot better than many were expecting as well. So today wasn't a total shock, but it was a good way to end the run.

Coming into the seasons I had very low expectations given the lack of squad depth, lack of funding that had gone into the first team and a relatively untested coach at the highest level. I fully expected us to be knocking around the bottom of the table. So to be four points away from the top eight with nine games to go isn't great (and not where the club should be aiming to be), but it isn't bad given the circumstances. Yes you can say on one hand that we are only above the teams who had points deductions. On the other hand we are not far of Hull KR, Bradford and Salford, all of whom recruited better than us and were fancied to go much better by many.

And for all the flak he has got on here, I thought Chris Bailey really stood up for us today and played well, so I'd like to single him out for special praise *ducks*.

Thought we played really well....














AND


WE WON!!!!!



woo hoo!! woop woop!!!!!

True, you do need to have the call, to verbally acknowledge it as a dominant tackle, but when the ball carriers momentum is propelled backwards towards his own goal then the tackle is dominant and the Harlequins player would have had justifiable reason to think that he would have that additional time. But as you say given that Hicks missed it then our player should have got off sooner and wondered what else he can do except go down the Sonny Bill Williams or Steve Matai route and stop them dead with a shoulder barge.

We won and the play offs here we come

=#FF0000take your squabbling elsewhere.

Penguin.

What a relief. After the Bradford game I really couldn't see where the next win was coming from; So what an improvement.

The addition of Briggs appeared to make a big difference because we seemed far more cohesive going forward and the decision making was far better - we were much less afflicted by 'headless chicken syndrome' within 20m of the tryline as has so often been the case in previous weeks. We didn't try and do anything that was too fancy, we cut down the silly errors, held on to the ball and completed our sets. We kept it simple. THERE IS A LESSON HERE.

Agree on the O'Callaghan plaudits - he was my MOTM too. Dorn back made a difference too. Feel pretty confident for next week as well, against HKR.

I have been impressed this year with how many yards we can make on a set of 6 with one or two simple passes but mixing up the first receiver between forwards, halves and backs. When we stop doing this the territory disappears and our play under pressure has not been great. If we concentrate on pressure/territory and not on scoring I think wins will come.

Noticed Calderwood was not in the 19 announced but played. Does this mean that Kouparitsas, Riley, and Temata who were in the 19 but did not play are all injured/unavailable?

I think Briggs looks to be the key, for too long this season we've played with one halfback and a hooker pretending to be a halfback, it just doesn't work. We had two halfbacks and it made it so much easier as the pressure is spread across the halves. Also, it meant we could play with two hookers in Randall and Ellis (the latter being one of our better players this season). It's not possible to play an entire season at this level with only one regular halfback.

JO'C was an absolute revelation at centre, probably best performance I've ever seen from him, and our best performance at centre for at lease two seasons. It actually gave us a centre partnership which offered different things, Clubb's battering ram physicality and J'OC bringing clever, jinking, broken field running. Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised, whatever he's been, he's never shirked work. We definitely need to give J'OC a run at centre, hopefully with Riley or Pryce if they are still available to us outside him.

What a superb performance! so much better, yes the silly penalties are frustrating as that is what allowed Wakefield to get back into the game, O'Callaghan yes, Briggs but lets not forget Gale and Dorn they do make such a difference.

I was one who was uncertain if we would win again but now I feel a little more confident, lets hope we have turned a corner.

I agree we don't want to see arguments here between clubs we play! this is our board! I only visit the Saints board as that is the town I live in, often shocks me about moderators who should set an example!

Was I at the same game yesterday ? Briggs ?? He was anonymous for the majority of the game did not see anything from him to warrant a mention ?? Gale played far better, and why oh why wakefield didnt target him in attack is beyond me.

Calderwood was my MOTM.

Nice to see Clubb doing a really good solid job and not trying to win the game single handedly with big hits and wild offloads.

i was gutted that i missed the game yesterday because i was playing in a tournament at dagenham that didn't end until 3pm

Must say, I enjoyed the day out and the hospitality, just a shame you couldnt manage a bigger crowd but after your recent run thats not so suprising!

Also really enjoyed the post match entertainment as the band you had on was quality, that was a nice way to improve the trip.

Sarcasm Dave??

No.

O'Callaghan seems to have taken a step from really solid for most of the season to much more of an attacking threat - speed and elusiveness. I wonder if the try against Cas has been a good confidence boost.

Also want to put in a bit of praise for Rob Thomas (not that it's all about locals). Noticed his contribution more yesterday than I have previously.

I thought Calderwood was good too. Nothing spectacular but was keen did the work and looked to support the play. For once Lister is not being too ironic, but there was half a dozen ahead of him for MOTM.

Briggs only arrived midweek, and although he was fairly anonymous it did allow us to play split halves for the first time in along time, giving us a threat on both sides of the field as Briggs can move far quicker with ball in hand than Bailey, and that is not a shot at Bailey as he is a back-row doing a job in the halves.

I wouldn't have expected Briggs to do anything but be a facilitator and do the simple things, he allowed Gale to play just be being there as a genuine threat, if only his first game threat was him being there and having a little pace. You wouldn't want a debutant stand-off with hardly any training to be throwing wild passes and offloads, but hopefully over the next month he will become more of a visible threat, rather than just the first few minutes against Wakey.

I understand Riley has gone back home which is a shame

I know someone else has commented on penalties, but I have to say I didn't see too many poor decisions - by the referee. We easiuly outclassed Wakey and yet were happy to give away needless penalties. Not good.

That said, overall, a good team performance. Briggs looks a very useful player to me - and welcome back Dorny!

Kouparitsas and Temata were sat in the wings of the west stand in training gear so I assume they were available but not chosen... for whatever reason. DSWG wondered if Pryce had gone back to Wigan. He was sat behind the players bench, having a pretend fight with Lamont - both in civvies so had not been considered for the Wakey game... for whatever reason.

Both Monty and Karl seemed to enjoy burger and chips - athletes food!

Thought Dorny was injured at the end of the game..

Rob Thomas was really good! Just kept running at them - didn't stop, great performance!!

Jamie O has improved no end, good jinking runs!

Don't know if the ref's decisions were poor its just that they seemed a bit odd!

Thought Briggs was good in the first half, didn't see as much from him in the 2nd - and I just hope to God that Dorny's injury is healed for next week. He was holding his side following a tackle late in the 1st half and all the way through the 2nd.

I've often cricisized him but I thought that Jamie O'C was excellent on Saturday, best I've seen him in ages!!