SAINTS produced an awful, error-strewn display to go down to a thoroughly demoralising 39-12 defeat with their hopes of lifting the League Leaders being put on hold.

It means that Saints must get a result in their final game of the season at Huddersfield – or be reliant on a Castleford slip in their final two if they are to finish top.

Although they started positively enough with a well-worked Shannon McDonnell try after five minutes, the errors and penalties soon began to bite hard.

Following a sustained period of pressure, Stefan Ratchford skipped in for a try.

Wolves got on the front foot, and their quick men from dummy half constantly had Saints back-pedalling. That allowed the visitors to make easy yards and pile on the pressure on the Saints line.

But after Saints had coped with three drop outs, a loose carry from Mose Masoe handed the initiative back to Warrington. And they grabbed it with both hands with Michael Monaghan stepping over from close range.

Another mistake – this time from a misfielded kick from Tommy Makinson – gave Wolves the position for Gareth O’Brien to step through.

And in a similar fashion to the debacle at the Etihad, Warrington went the length of the field from the restart with Joel Monagahan finishing it off.

Saints gave themselves a flicker of hope when Jordan Turner and Paul Wellens combined to send Willle Manu stepping over.

Wolves had the last word of the half, with Richie Myler popping over a drop goal.

Saints needed to score first and early, but that was probably wishful thinking.

There was something inevitable about it when Myler stepped through some flaky defence to push it out to 27-12.

Another Masoe dropped ball was again punished with a try that summed up Saints’ night – with a kick downfield missed by Dawson and Turner was touched down by Joel Monaghan.

And to conclude the evening’s misery Lance Hohaia’s loose pass was picked up by Ryan Atkins who streaked home under the Saints sticks.

To make matters worse Nathan Brown revealed afterwards that Shannon McDonnell had suffered a broken jaw in the first minute - and played the rest of the first half with it.