SAINTS travel to Salford on Thursday knowing that a win will see them pull off another Houdini act and continue their record of reaching every play-off phase of Super League.

Defeat, against a Red Devils outfit that contains plenty of quality, will end their year prematurely.

Justin Holbrook is not taking the task lightly but is content with the positive signs he saw in the first hour against Huddersfield last week, particularly with Ben Barba beginning to find his feet in time for the real business end.

Holbrook said: “The signs are there that it is coming together nicely.

“It is a great position for us to be in with Benny. I said it would take three or four games.

“It is easy to be training well but you have to play games and get match fitness up. He showed what he is capable of last week.

“We need him to improve on that and get better. I was pleased with the combinations in that game and thought we played some good rugby league and we have to continue that on.

“We could have eased him in with 40 minutes against Wigan and then 60 and then all of a sudden we would have run out of time.

“It was always going to be hard for him to play those 80 minutes straight away, but knew it would put us in a much better position in a week or so’s time.

“That is why I am pleased it is back in our own hands again now.

“Getting him another 80 under his belt will mean he is right to go after that.”

Holbrook was pleased with the combinations against Huddersfield, particularly with Jonny Lomax’s input. at stand off

“I thought we went well there on Friday and was happy with Jonny’s game.

“He is versatile, but I think he showed why I picked him at six. He had only had the one game there - and in that we were 14-0 down after no time so that made it hard. I thought he showed some real class on Friday,” he said.

Wigan’s loss against Castleford means that everything now hinges on Saints winning at Salford - but it won’t be taken lightly.

Holbrook said: “It is much better that it is back now in our hands. I always believed that with the Super 8s that teams would drop points playing each other.

“It is a much better feeling that we can just concentrate on ourselves on Thursday and not be reliant on other results.”

“We have a tough game ahead of us on Thursday, but it is a much better feeling.

“Salford have some dangerous players and some very strong ball carriers. Robert Lui has been good all year, but in Ben Murdoch-Masila, Junior Sau and Manu Vatuvei they have some strong carriers of the football.”

“We are not in a position to take them lightly, nor should we.

“We have respect for them but need to go there with our own house in order and get that right.

“For us it doesn’t matter where we are playing. Our away form is good now and we struggled with that for most of the year.

“We had some good away wins now, twice at Wakefield and once at Cas, and our losses have been narrow.

“It is a quarter final, we need to win to go through and in that sense it really helps us get a taste of play-off football.”

Holbrook is likely to stick with the same 17 that beat Huddersfield, which again would mean no place for Matty Smith and Kyle Amor who played reserves last week, but are included in the 19-man squad.

Last week Saints went with Theo Fages taking the place of one of the big men on the bench, although he only came on late in the game.

Holbrook said: "I was happy with our four interchanges last week and will probably stick with that.

"Kyle has done nothing wrong, but it is just what we are running with at the moment. I don’t expect him to be happy about it, but he has just got to carry on working hard and wait for an opportunity."