PRE-season friendlies are not everyone’s cup of tea – but players, coaches and fans alike accept that they are a necessary ritual for clubs applying the finishing touches to their training.

They are barely memorable affairs – particularly the ones in which the whole squad gets a spell to the extent that the casual spectator loses track who is actually playing.

Off the top of my head, of the dozens I have watched since 1978, only three or four pre-season games have been particularly memorable.

Roy Mathias’ testimonial game against Pilks Recs in 1982, which featured a set-to between the beneficiary and Recs former professional prop Kevin Whittle, produced a few talking points.

Saints’ 1984 game against new club Mansfield Marksman stuck out, if only for the reasons that it gave an early indication that the fledgling Nottinghamshire outfit were going to find it tough and that there was a reason why new Aussie debutant Paul Hamson was arriving a couple of months ahead of compatriots Mal Meninga and Phil Veivers.

Keiron Cunningham’s testimonial game against Hull in 2004 was actually a decent encounter, played in front of 6,000 plus crowd and with a cameo appearance from Johnny Vegas to top it off.

But the last one to really stick out – probably not in a good way — was the Boxing Day 2004 clash with Leigh.

A young side, with the very odd smattering of older players, including new signings Paul Anderson and Michael Smith, needed a Scott Moore drop goal to clinch it.

But I recall the match more for the snow. It had come down really thick overnight and the game looked certain to be off. So by mid day my feet were up, ready to watch Citizen Kane with a glass of something decent. Saints’ press officer Alex Turner soon spoiled that by ringing me to tell me the game was ON.

With conditions so treacherous in Widnes that none of the local taxis were going out I ended up walking, skidding and sliding all the way to Knowsley Road.

That was the last time Saints bothered with the festive friendly – and for that I am glad, as much as everyone still gets nostalgic about Saints v Wigan on Boxing Day.

We tried to keep that key date on the rugby league calendar going at the outset of Super League, but the teams selected never did the tradition justice.

Coaches have different approaches to friendly games – and between 2006 and 2008 Daniel Anderson only went with one per year involving the first team - and winced when he did so.

His successors have gone with anything from two to four, although the recent trend has been a couple – one to give the who squad a run and a second match to fine tune things.

This year with Saints having five new boys and a ruck of promoted juniors it is important that they gel and that the team gets used to the voices of the couple of new pivots.

Game time in late January provides something that they can’t get on the training field and enough fans, keen for a first glimpse of Ryan Morgan and Luke Douglas, will turn up to the games against Widnes and Cas to make them financially worthwhile.