SAINTS coach Keiron Cunningham was in upbeat mood after his team overcame a potential banana skin to stay on top of the league – the Star’s senior sports writer Mike Critchley caught up with him.

MC: Did the other weekend results for teams involved in the World Club Series put the Saints result into context?

KC: Completely and utterly. Coming into the game I could foresee where it was going because I could see how tired the players were.

I tried to build the team up, but they are a great set of professional players and a pleasure to work with.

I knew they would go out and give everything – and they did.

They got through with grit and determination, they competed hard. It was not the smartest victory I have ever been involved in, but they just competed hard and got the result.

Warrington had a tough task in Catalans, but Wigan usually do well at Hull KR so to see them drop points was a shock.

They all suffered the hangover and they had a couple of days extra recovery than us.

MC: Looking at Daryl Powell’s face after the game – one of bitter disappointment – he came here for two points?

KC: They genuinely believed we were there for the taking, but we were made of a bit more than they gave us credit for. We can hang in there with anyone, they are never going to give in and fight to the end. The boys proved we are not going to give up the points easy at Langtree Park.

MC: There was no sign of you giving the players the slightest hint of an excuse before the game.

KC: We have a leadership group that competes really hard, who want to do well for the club. They knew what they wanted to do, if sometimes the mind and body did not go with them at times. They tried and tried, and generally when you put effort in you get a result.

MC: The team had plenty of tackling practice again?

KC: Defensively we have been great and we have worked hard on our structures.

They have been super all year. Even against Souths – who put 39 points on us – our structure was only broken once.

The rest were kicks, bounces of the ball and errors. Our system has only been broken three times this year and that is a credit to the players.

We are trying to bring that culture of grit and determination back into the club and it is working really well.

MC: When it looked like there was a momentum shift to Cas it was a good effort to wrestle it back.

KC: Losing Kyle Amor for that 10 minute period was good for the players, because it gave them a kick up the backside and they got really aggressive and really dirty about what was going on. They improved out of sight with 12 players.

MC: It is a shame about losing Travis Burns – especially after his display on Friday when he really got a grip of the team?

KC: I thought his game management was brilliant as was Jon Wilkin’s. Wilko is not a seven, he is a back rower but he looks like one now and plays like one, even though he is still learning to understand the role a bit. Both halves kicked when they needed to and played the right plays.

It was a hard fought victory which sets you in good stead for the close games where you have to hang in.

MC: With the suspensions, does that open the door for Lance or Wello to get a game?

KC: I think so. We have plenty of options. We can put JT, Wello or Lance in the halves.

Potentially both Lance and Wello might come into the squad, depending on which way I am going to play it.

MC: Is Adam Swift OK?

KC: He did a bit of running on Monday – he has got a good chance but we will see how he recovers and will take him down to the end of the week to see how he goes. If not, then Matty Dawson will come straight in.