A solitary Ben Currie try for the visitors was enough, as a below-par Saints suffered our second defeat of the season on Thursday evening at the hands of Warrington at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
It was a tight opening 10 minutes with the Saints forced to defend their line early on and the visitors forcing a dropout, but we stood firm.
Saints did open the scoring with a Lachlan Coote penalty in the 13th minute, Alex Walmsley with a big run under the sticks, but the Wire were penalised for a ball steal and our number one gave us the early 2-0 lead.
Warrington replied 10 minutes later. A break down the left wing from Tom Lineham resulted in him finding the supporting Ben Currie on his inside and the second rower strolled under the sticks. Gareth Widdop added the extra two, 6-2 Warrington led just over halfway into the first half.
The visitors had a chance to extend their lead in the final minute of the first half. They were awarded a penalty after Tommy Makinson supposedly ran behind Agnatius Paasi. The decision looked harsh. Gareth Widdop went for two from 40 metres out, but his penalty went well wide of the sticks as Saints trailed 6-2 in a tight opening 40 minutes at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
Saints started the second half much better, forcing an early goal-line dropout from the visitors. We were unable to take advantage though, as the visitors defence stood firm.
Wire thought they had extended their lead a few minutes later, but Stefan Ratchford’s score was ruled out for a Blake Austin forward pass in the build up. We then went close with our own effort a minute later, but Joe Batchelor was stopped a metre short of the try-line on the last tackle.
With six minutes left Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook almost dragged a few Wire defenders over the try-line with him after picking up a loose ball, but he was stopped just short of the line before the momentum was lost after the doctors were on again for Warrington.
This was however the start of three consecutive Saints sets on the Warrington line. As the pressure built, Makinson flew over in the corner in typical spectacular fashion, but the try was ruled out for a supposed forward pass from Jonny Lomax.
That was the final chance of the game for either side, as the second half ended the way the first half had finished. 6-2 to Warrington.
Saints Team: Lachlan Coote, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Jack Welsby, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax, Theo Fages, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Joel Thompson, Sione Mata’utia, Morgan Knowles.
Interchanges: Kyle Amor, Agnatius Paasi, Joe Batchelor, Lewis Dodd.
Penalties: Lachlan Coote (1 from 1)
Warrington Wolves Team: Stefan Ratchford, Tom Lineham, Jake Mamo, Toby King, Josh Charnley, Blake Austin, Gareth Widdop, Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Jack Hughes, Joe Philbin.
Interchanges: Robbie Mulhern, Matt Davis, Sitaleki Akauola, Danny Walker.
Tries: Ben Currie (23)
Goals: Gareth Widdop (1 from 1)
Penalties: Gareth Widdop (0 from 1)
HT: 2-6
FT: 2-6
