KEIRON Cunningham was pleased with the performance following Saints’ 20-12 win at Widnes on Easter Monday.
He said his team ‘put the horse in front of the cart’ for once this season.
“We knew we would get a response from Friday and I’m happy with the way we went about the victory,” he said. “We played for the full 80 minutes and actually got the horse in front of the cart for once. We got off to a good scoreline and defended it rather than going behind and having to chase it down.
“We actually aren’t far off and I thought we played some really good football today.
“I thought Luke Thompson was sensational. He played massive minutes as did Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Jon Wilkin. They defended on the edges and Wilko dropped into the middle too.
“It is really tough backing up games and it hurts. I did that in my career. Those back periods of games are when it takes its toll. In the back of the first half I thought we were pretty good and we defended a lot in the second as Widnes really came and played at us.
“I thought young Andre went well too. His first stint was brilliant. When the big men were really hurting he came back on with Jordan Turner and they did a good job for us.
“That is the anger and determination we want to see from Andre every week.”
He continued: “I thought Theo did a good job too. He is young and can be a bit eager with his plays but he came up with a try pass – last week he scored and did the same too. He is doing a great job.
“We also looked like a solid defensive team again. It helps when both edges are stable and defend well.
“Widnes defended well too. We played our plays; we did what we wanted to and got repeat sets. That burns a lot of juice and if we hadn’t done that then there would have been a sting in the tail more than we got.
“In the end results come with performances. The result happens when you perform well. If the team does what we practice and what we ask them to do, and then they perform well, you will get a result.
“Today was about the performance and the boys deserve the credit. They have been through the mill and taken a lot of flack but they are still there with a fighting chance.”
Saints are next in action when they host Hull FC this Friday (8pm).
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