DESPITE having what skipper Jon Wilkin described as a “weird year” Saints are once again within touching distance of Old Trafford.

Just like last year, when Saints were sunk by a Kevin Sinfield 40/20, Wilkin expects another tight game that could be decided by fine margins.

But after being out of the reckoning in mid June, Saints go into the knockout stages with a confidence derived from a winning run of 11 wins from 12.

Explaining the turnaround, Wilkin said: “We have had a weird year.

“We hit a really tough patch in the middle and although there was a bit of distance between the supporters and the team we were always really confident behind the scenes that we could turn that around.

“The way we were defending was giving us the chance to win games and credit to Keiron and the boys for doing that.

“To go into this time of the year with that run of form behind us is really great.”

Having secured top four weeks ago, the last three wins - against Hull, Widnes and Wakefield — have been relatively flat encounters, in contrast to the big games Wolves have had to crank up for at the back end of both competitions.

Whether that will have an effect to make Saints fresher, or Warrington more battle-hardened will be seen on Thursday.

Wilkin said: “We have cruised through the last few weeks without getting out of second gear.

“When you get to a big game like this you want to bring some form and confidence into it.

“Both sides are in good form, but anything can happen.

Ourselves and Warrington is always a good tussle, especially going to the Halliwell Jones where we have a good record.”

Injury Warrington are missing some of the big names that started the campaign — Ben Currie, Ben Westwood and Chris Sandow — but the strength of their squad has ensured that those gaps have been more than adequately filled.

Wolves’ major threat comes with the work they do in getting their quick men to dart from dummy half to get the defence back-pedalling.

To arrest that Saints need to win the collision with big men Chris Hill and Ashton Sims and then be smart defending the ruck.

Wilkin said: “Warrington are stacked with talent – probably the most threatening side in the league with the ball because they can speed the game up so easily.

“They have got Matty Russell, Stefan Ratchford who follows players around and makes breaks, Chris Hill who is constantly getting them on the front foot.

“And then Daryl Clarke who produced a Lance Todd trophy performance in the Challenge Cup final.”

But Saints will not be turning up to give their opponents too much respect, and have had the measure of them twice already this season.

After that heart-breaking late semi-final loss to Leeds last year, there will be an added determination to scale this final hurdle.

“The sides are so close.

“It is going to come down to margins, luck or the bounce of the ball.

“It is going to be very tight.

“Last year one kick changed the course of our season.

“We have to get on the right side of those – we cannot be constantly on the wrong side of those 50/50s.

“It is important to go out and to do it for us as a club. Going out producing a consistent defensive performance and really attacking the game with the ball is what will get us home.

“We get confidence this year not from how we have played at Warrington in the past, but rather how we have played over the last three months. We will take that to Warrington and see what happens.

“We have belting support and our fans love going there,” Wilkin said.