SAINTS coach Keiron Cunningham spoke with the Star’s Mike Critchley after Monday’s win at Widnes.

MC: Everyone was so down after Good Friday’s disappointment you needed a result:

KC: We did - but like I said to my team, it is not about results - for me as a coach, results happen when you perform well, that’s a given.

I am not one who hammers home results, if the team do what we ask them to do and what we practise then you get a good performance together and you are going to get results as a by-product.

They deserve credit for the performance against Widnes.

They have been through the mill a little bit and taken a bit of flak off a lot of people, but they are still there fighting with a chance.

MC: Some strong performances – especially Luke Thompson, who made a big impact?

KC: He was absolutely sensational and played massive minutes.

Wilko and Louie have gone for 80 minutes on two edges, before Wilko dropped in on the middle as well.

It is tough backing up after a three day turnaround - I have done it for a long time and it really does hurt.

Those back periods of the games are when it takes its toll. I thought the back period of the first half we were pretty good and in the back period of the second half we defended a lot because Widnes really came and played at us.

MC: You split your halves – Theo Fages and Luke Walsh – are you happy with how that partnership is shaping?

KC: They are going really well.

Theo is obviously still young and a little bit eager with some of his plays, but I thought he was generally really good.

He has come up with another try pass again.

Against Wigan he scored one and made one as well.

He is doing a great job and working well with Walshy.

It definitely helps when both edges are very stable and defend well together, you look like a solid defensive team then.

MC: Saints hammered the line for 20 minutes in that second half, are you concerned that you could not crack them?

KC: No, Widnes defended really well. We played our plays really well, it was exactly the same plays that we scored on in the first half.

Maybe we did not play them quite on the right man in the second half, but at the end of the day we did what we wanted to do.

We played the rugby in the right part of the field and kept going with repeat set after repeat set, which burns a lot of juice if you are defending.

If we hadn’t have done that there would have been a sting in the Widnes tail a lot worse than what we got.

MC: Are we seeing another developing role for Jordan Turner?

KC: It is not the first time he has been in the forwards, he did end up defending on an edge and we had to put him at centre at the back end of the game.

He does look good through the middle and defends pretty good with the other middles.

It is tough defending out wide then getting thrown in the middle, it is not easy.

He was fresh and I though Andre Savelio was sensational and his first stint was brilliant.

He changed a lot of the game - the big men were really hurting.

Andre and JT were fresh and did a great job for us.

MC: Andre has missed the last four matches, did he need to bring a big performance?

KC: He has not played for a few weeks. He has played reserves, but he was adamant and you could see him champing at the bit before the game. He had a bit of determination about him and that is what we want to see every single week.