KEIRON Cunningham said he thought his charges were “flat” as they went down 30-12 against Catalans last night.
“I thought we looked really tired,” he said. “We’ve not had the luxury of rolling people and have had to keep the same squad for a number of weeks. The Easter weekend and into the big game last week hurt us more than it should have.
“That said, we still gave ourselves a chance. We got back in the game but looked flat across the board.
“We are desperate for some players to come back in and we will try and drip feed them back over the next few weeks.
“We lost our structure in both defence and attack and we have worked hard on that over the last month. We thought we had turned a corner and that is what frustrates you as a coach. You feel like you are heading in the right direction after three good performances and then you chuck that up.
“It’s disappointing for me and the fans who have paid good money to come and watch. They have not been entertained in the last two or three games at this place.
“Hopefully, we will have some players back next week and can make some changes.”
He continued: “Our middles weren’t great tonight but all season they have played well so I can’t really criticise them. But those edges hurt us again and we can’t compete with anything when we aren’t defending together. There are some hard lessons for everyone tonight and there will be a few not playing next week.
“Atelea Vea isn’t far off as is Mark Percival and Jonny Lomax is also on the horizon. There are few creeping back in there.
“We have no outside backs – we are decimated from our starting five who should be in there and to be fair to Catalans they exploited it.
“Those kids learnt a hard lesson but there were a lot of senior players defending around them and they should have helped out.
“But it doesn’t matter how light we are; we have a deep squad at one of the most prestigious teams in the comp. We have to go out there and compete.”
Saints are next at Langtree Park when Leeds Rhinos come to town next Friday April 22.
Tickets are now on sale from the Ticket Office at Langtree Park, by calling 01744 455 052 or online.