NATHAN Brown accentuated the positives as Saints were edged at home to Leeds last night.
Although his side lost 20-12, the club’s head coach believes there is an upside to a team that can only get better.
“I thought we played a very good side and we did some good things,” he said. “We weren’t so smart in the first half at times and I thought we let ourselves down in a couple of areas, but the overall picture is we scored three tries and they did. I am disappointed to lose but I can see there is a lot of upside in the team. We were in good control, but we didn’t play as smart as we should have done or play from the right areas.
“Leeds are a very very good team and for the four young kids out there today, they all handled themselves well against good players. There is a lot of improvement in us with the amount of changing in positions and personnel but as the weeks go by we can improve.
“I can’t complain about the result; of course we would have liked to have won. The game was an arm wrestle for long periods of time. They got the try from the kick and scored back-to-back on us, and then we did the same. Earlier in the second half we opened them up a few times but took the wrong option.”
Saints lost Alex Walmsley in the warm up after his hamstring tightened up and Gary Wheeler damaged his in the second half – but one plus was the excellent debut of Mark Percival.
“Percy did well didn’t he?” Brown added. “He is a talented young kid and Derek Traynor and the guys in youth development have done a great job with him.
“To play well against a quality team and a quality player in Carl Ablett – his future is bright.”
