SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham lambasted his team's performance after watching them slump to a 46-18 defeat at Headingley.

Cunningham said some of his senior players had let the side down with a performance that was "not good enough."

He said: "It was probably the worst start in St Helens rugby league club history.

"I don't think I have seen a worst start.

"You think we would have learnt a lot of lessons from the last time we played Leeds.

"We aren't playing against a poor team, they are world class and if you give them plenty of shots at the line they will score tries and they scored plenty tonight.

"By the time we got some form of exposure we were 22 points down which is not good enough from this side.

"I said to the players, the expectancy is high at this club. You aren't playing at an average club; we would like to think we are world class too and that is just not good enough. If you don't want to play in big games then you're at the wrong club as we do want to play in big games.

"A lot of senior players let their teammates down today."

Cunningham believed this performance had been coming since the win over Wigan.

He said: "This has been on the horizon. We weren't great at Cas and we were poor for 50 minutes against Widnes - and tonight our start was horrible.

"It was horrendous but believe it or not there was some good defensive stuff in there - but you can't chase a game. It was like there was a party for first and we didn't get the invite. We sat there waiting and watching instead of rolling our sleeves up.

"That said, I thought Jon Wilkin was phenomenal and tireless; he led by example but it was a pity 16 blokes didn't go with him."

The Saints boss then extended his apologies to the large travelling contingent who turned out on the M62 on Friday night.

"As a coach I have to take the brunt of this. As a local boy who is a spectator and an ex player I want to apologise to all the Saints fans who made the journey over here, on a Friday evening, to watch that debacle," he said.