SAINTS boss Justin Holbrook gave his reaction to the defeat at Castleford.

They had led throughout the game and were never behind until the 71st minute try.

Although the later video showed that Tom Holmes’ try was from a forward pass and offside, Holbrook had no complaints with the match officials.

He praised the side’s effort and defence, but was critical of the execution.

Holbrook said: “I can’t fault the defence and effort, it was just the execution where we were poor.

“I had no complaints about their winning try, even when you look at the replay and see that he was a few metres offside.

“But I can’t blame the officials.

“I was sat in the grandstand and did not tell it was offside either.

“If we have not got a video ref I won’t blame the officials for getting that one wrong.”

The game was there for the taking with Castleford leaving out four key men.

And that was something that grated on Holbrook - the fact that they had done enough to win it but then paid a big price for poor execution.

Holbrook said: “The main thing I was disappointed with was that we should have won.

“I was happy with our defence.

“I know Castleford rested a few guys but we defended really well on Sunday.

“It was a missed opportunity for sure.

“Castleford had the luxury of resting players because of where they are sitting, they have earned that right and for us to fall just short is really costly for where we are sitting on the table.

“They were averaging 50 plus points at home and, although they rested some stars, they still had plenty of strike I thought our defence was outstanding.

“We have been defending well all year – although they lost their way just before I arrived, but we have got that back on track.

“We have to improve our decision making with the ball.

“I can see a lot of opportunity for us and hopefully we can put that into action.

“We lost a lost a lot of ball in situations dumb little ones where we just need better ball security.

“It is a concentration thing in that area – we need to fix that because that hurt us.

“Hanging on to the ball is a basic thing in rugby league.

“In training you work on execution but securing the ball in the tackle and in playing the ball are just basics.

“The important thing is to get back on track in a local derby.

“It would be good if there was a big crowd on there getting behind the boys on Friday night.”