KEIRON Cunningham said Saints had to dig deep to progress to the Semi Finals of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.
Down by two points after an hour Kyle Amor scored a vital try to set his side on the way to a 36-20 victory.
“We had to dig deep and it wasn’t the greatest performance,” he said. “Sometimes you have to win ugly and that is what we did.
“Widnes did a great job on us and I thought they played the referee better than we did. I have watched all the games this weekend and I thought the referees did a great job. Widnes played the referee better than we did and we were mugged in the ruck.
“We were always on the back foot as a result even though we scored some great tries. It burned us and at times our middles looked shot to pieces.
“We hung on in there went in up and the break but came out in the second half and made a meal of it.
“All credit to my halves though and Jon Wilkin, they really brought us home well. The final 30 minutes was up there with the Wigan and Warrington games. We completed 13 sets in a row kicked it long and rolled our sleeves up.
“That wins you Cup games, doing the dirty stuff, getting our head down and completing sets.”
He continued: “When Percy came back we got that stability with our edges and middles. Mose Masoe’s second stint was outstanding. Jon Wilkin was superb too. He led from the front.”
The win set up a tie with Leeds in the Semi Finals.
“Any draw would be tough,” he added. “If you have any ambition to win competitions you have to play great teams. You couldn’t pick a draw really as all sides are playing well.”
