SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham rued poor ball control that contributed to the team’s Challenge Cup exit when talking with the Star’s Mike Critchley.

MC: Challenge Cup defeats always flatten everyone, fans and players alike. How do you pick them up after that loss?

KC: It does (flatten you). I was the same myself and I have not even got the words for the way I was feeling over the weekend.

It was good that I had my family there and that I have a got a close family and I leaned on my wife and kids a bit over the weekend.

There are some really good people at this club – Eamonn McManus, Mike Rush and Mike Coleman – and all those other really good people who run the place.

Then we have got really good fans – spectators who follow us home and away, rain, hail or shine.

I just thought the fans really deserved to have a genuine shot at a Wembley run but unfortunately it was not meant to be.

MC: Leeds were pretty hard to hold in that opening quarter.

KC: We were not far off. Leeds are a good side, who started really well. I thought we were a couple of plays off winning that game.

The first half was a big occasion. We only had four good ball sets in the first half and we dropped the ball three times. It is just not good enough – that was Joe and then Louie loses two. It is not good enough and that puts you in bad spots and releases the pressure off Leeds.

Leeds are the sort of team that score tries when they are in those positions and we have to be a little bit more ruthless.

We got on that roll in the second half and then Mose came on and put the ball down on play three – his first carry.

Then Robes went down the outside and kicks it out on the full. Leeds went up the other end – put it in the air, repeat set, try.

That is what you have got to do – learn how to win big games.

MC: At one point in the second half the momentum was back with Saints – and the next passage of play had a vital bearing on the match

KC: We hung in there like a real big-game team. We hung in there and then our chances came and we took them then at 18-14 we were back in the game.

It was just closing the game down that we struggled with. Leeds are a great side, take nothing away from them, but we are not a bad side ourselves.

We are not far off them and I wouldn’t mind another crack at them.

MC: They have this ability to get the ball out – it was like they had eight or nine tackles a set at times?

KC: That is what they do. They play really unorthodox, but we defended it a little bit dumb.

I would like to think that next time we play them we will defend it differently.

We defended like schoolboys at times, running around chasing the ball – instead of basically letting it unfold in front of you.

We just were not quite smart enough in large parts of that game.

Leeds will pass the ball to the left edge and score on the right edge, that is how they play.

They don’t play with any formal structure they just throw the ball about everywhere and have got that many good strike players on each edge that somebody is going to do something.

Or when they make half break there is always a Danny McGuire or a Zak Hardaker supporting up the middle. Leeds have strike all over the field.

MC: How do stop the ‘We can’t beat Leeds’ fatalism which gathers pace after a third defeat from infecting the team?

KC: We know we can beat Leeds. The other two games we started really poorly but this time around Leeds came out of the blocks flying.

I made my players a promise and said if stay within a score or two off Leeds at half time we will get a genuine crack at this game.

If we had gone in with one more score, which we should have had when we dropped the ball three times, then it is a different game because we would have still come out and played the way we did in the second half.

You see the sides that do well against Leeds, they weather the storm for long periods and then you get chances. You have to capitalise on those chances and be a bit more clinical.

MC: Some great individual displays from Andre Savelio, Alex Walmsley and Josh Jones really injected something there.

KC: Jonesy has been really good for us this year. I asked him if he would stand up in front of the players and talk to them about leaving. He has been really good for us and he will be a sad loss to us and rugby league as a whole.

I am not sure he is making the right decision and I tried my best to convince him the other way.

He wanted to chance his arm, but the door will always be open if he does want to come back. He is a great athlete and professional.

MC: Is Travis Burns ok, he looked like he was limping a bit?

KC: He is carrying a bit of a bump but we are hopeful that we can get him fit and back on the field.

We definitely need him and Walshy on the field.