SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham is confident the team is on the right track despite losing four of their past five matches.

And after working on some of the defensive deficiencies that reared their head against Leeds, he believes his players will have learned some harsh lessons.

Saints tackle Widnes on Friday aiming to put a halt to back-to-back home losses, but Cunningham believes the recent losses should be put into a wider context.

He said: “Out of the four losses the game that disappointed me was the Hull one, that was the one we are stinging from the most.

“But I have faith in my squad – I am long in the tooth with all the league stuff.

“It is a very long season and I’m sure there were points last season where Nathan Brown was the worst coach in the league and some wanted him out after losing this game and that. But we finished first and then won the Grand Final and the next thing he is wonderful.

“So in the middle of this we have to put things into context; we are in second, not a bad spot, and I wouldn’t say we are playing badly.

“There is no crisis here and I have faith in my players to go out there and do a job. They did not do some smart things on Friday which hurt us, but they will learn from those mistakes.

“We have been working hard on those areas and trained hard on those deficiencies and I am sure we won’t do them again on Friday night.”