SAINTS coach Keiron Cunningham was delighted with the way Luke Walsh performed in the opening night win over Huddersfield.

He drew particular satisfaction from the way his pairing with Jordan Turner gelled, after plenty of searching for the right formula in the pre-season.

Cunningham said: "Luke Walsh was brilliant. I have never seen anyone as focused as Walshy in pre-season.

"He has taken the bull by the horns, and it was about finding the right pairing for him, which was the biggest key.

“You have to get the balance right and that has been a tough old tussle in pre-season trying to pick it.

"Hopefully we have found it, and if not we have a couple more to shoot with."

On the whole Cunningham was pleased with the way they overcame what has traditionally been a tough one for them – Saints losing the corresponding fixture 40-4 back in 2013.

Cunningham explained: "I was really happy. I like playing two friendlies because you end up hitting the ground running on the third game.

"We improved a lot from the Widnes game. I know Huddersfield lost a lot of key players and had to juggle players around, but the way the momentum of the game was swinging anyway, it was looking comfortable.

"We are still tinkering with a few things."

Saints packed their bench with big men - and those big men gave Walsh something to work off.

"We went with four forwards on the bench because we knew what the conditions would be like. We only used three subs in the first half and that gave us plenty to shoot with in the second half.

"Luke Thompson was phenomenal. He changed the game, my plan was to bring him on for Louie against a tiring defence.

"I also thought Big Al changed the flow of the game when he came on in the first spell and did what we wanted him to do.

"The halves' game management was superb, which is really important," he said.