20 Years of Super League: 2011: The rugby gods twist the knife after Saints spend a year on the road

With the club's departure from their Knowsley Road home of 120 years necessitating the playing of all home matches in Widnes and the shenanigans around the pending move of starlet Kyle Eastmond to rugby union, the rugby gods certainly knew how to mix Simmons a bottle.

And those gods were to provide him, the team and their long suffering fans with one more cruel twist before the year was out.

After defying those odds to get through to Old Trafford again they suffered their fifth. and arguably most heartbreaking. Grand Final defeat in a row.

In the sodden conditions, Saints looked like they were in the driving seat at the hour mark but four tries in the last quarter sent to trophy back to Yorkshire.

It was a game that hinged on injuries – an issue that had plagued Saints all year – with Michael Shenton (dislocated elbow) and Paul Wellens (Achilles) both forced off in a crucial part of the game.

After recovering from an over-cautious first half in which they trailed 8-2, Saints grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck at the start of the second half.

Saints had all the momentum at the start of the second half, earning four repeat sets. They came close to opening their account when Andrew Dixon was adjudged to have knocked on chasing Jonny Lomax’s grubber.

Tommy Makinson’s never-give-up spirit paid dividends when he chased his own grubber and reached over a complacent Brent Webb to level matters millimetres from the dead ball line.

That gave Saints plenty of confidence, and, following another period of pressure as a result of a wicked Lomax bomb they crossed again.

This came after Lomax and Roby worked a move directly from the base of the scrum, with Gaskell playing off that to send Shenton over.

A Foster penalty made it 14-8 and when Sinfield’s restart kick sailed out on the full, the Old Trafford gods looked to be smiling down on Saints for once. Foster arrowed his goal over from the half way line to raise the volume of the Saints fans packed up in the Stretford End.

But then it began to unravel.

An unnecessary high tackle from Scott Moore on Ben Jones-Bishop gave Leeds some relief – and in the next passage of play Shenton recoiled in agony from the tackle.

It was to prove a devastating blow and Leeds were streetwise enough to pick at the weak seam created by the England centre’s departure.

Webb was the first beneficiary, turning the Saints defence inside out, with Sinfield’s conversion and difficult penalty restoring parity.

The Rhinos tails were up – and Rob Burrow again tore through from deep to send Ryan Hall in at the corner.

After some great tackling all night it was then a poor effort that failed to stop Carl Ablett six minutes from time.

That was the clincher – with Zak Hardaker’s last minute try from a Gaskell kick being the coup de grace as Old Trafford again become the Theatre of Nightmares for the men in the red vee.

And to compound Saints' misery the end of the season was greeted with another high-profile departure with joint skipper James Graham moving to the NRL with Canterbury Bulldogs.

Simmons had problems before the season had even got started with the question mark over Eastmond's future.

When Saints let Sean Long go early and released Matty Smith it was with the clear aim of building the team around Eastmond at seven.

But the uncertainty, unrest and the barracking the scrum half received began to affect his performances and Simmons soon produced the masterstroke of teaming up Lee Gaskell with Jonny Lomax.

That Lomaskell pairing was key to getting Saints to Old Trafford.

But no player drove Saints on in 2011 more than pack leader Graham who was outstanding in the pair of 26-18 play off wins over Wigan to avenge the earlier Challenge Cup semi defeat.

Sadly there was no fairytale ending, only a cruel, gut-wrenching defeat that left significant scars.