IF one thing has surely been learned across Super League over the years, it is to never write off the Saints.

Not when their backs are against the wall, not when they are under fire, not when the whole world seems to be against them and certainly not when they are visiting Wire at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Despite all the adversity going into Friday’s game – and a shedload more that reared its ugly head during the 80 minutes - Keiron Cunningham’s depleted charges produced their best performance of the season to date and put some smiles back on faces.

Saints, on the back of three losses in four outings and without the services of Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival, Dominique Peyroux, Adam Swift, Travis Burns, Atelea Vea, Lama Tasi and Joe Greenwood, became the first team to topple the league leaders on their home turf this season.

And in doing so they continued a sequence that shows them having only lost once on the ground to Warrington since the doors were opened in 2004.

With three juniors in the ranks, Saints clawed their way back from 10-0 down in the first half despite a heavy penalty count against them and went on to triumph after overcoming the setback of conceding a hard-earned lead to a soft try on half time as well as losing the services of their skipper Jon Wilkin to a head injury when Saints were holding a slender 16-14 advantage at the start of the final quarter.

No wonder Cunningham said afterwards that he was proud of his men.

Last year’s under 19s player of the season Morgan Knowles scored the decisive try, while it was another 20-year-old Jack Ashworth whose converted try put Saints in front for the first time on a night when 19-year-old winger Jake Spedding made a baptism of fire against his hometown club.

Of all the stars in the night sky, there is always one that shines brightest and on Friday it was Theo Fages.

The Frenchman, on his fourth consecutive start in the halves alongside Luke Walsh, was at the heart of Saints’ most creative play and it was the 21-year-old who took a grip of things in the final quarter when patience and composure was needed to get the team over the line.

Fages could only do that with the steady work of James Roby, Luke Walsh and earlier Wilkin providing assistance as conductors of the orchestra.

And the former Salford man’s best work, whether it was with hands or boot, could only occur thanks to a hard-working pack lighting the fuse.

Kyle Amor gave example of that as he opened Saints’ scoring 42 seconds after arriving on the field as a replacement prop.

Wire were 10-0 ahead on the back of a 4-0 penalty count courtesy of tries from Kevin Penny and Ryan Atkins but Amor drilled deep into home territory with his first touch and on the next tackle dived over the try line after making himself available to Shannon McDonnell’s pass from his dancing run following Fage’s initial switch of play and Wilkin’s offload.

When Penny kicked the re-start straight into touch, Saints raided again and Fage’s sublime pass sent back rower Ashworth through a hole on an angled run.

At 12-10, after Walsh’s conversions, and Saints enjoying a fairer share of the ball, the employed tactics of trying to take the punch out of Warrington’s attacking threats became clearer.

Centres Atkins and Ben Currie were made to work hard in defence, as were livewire pivots Daryl Clark and Stefan Ratchford, while kicks were often directed at touch to prevent evasive full back Matty Russell gaining a head of steam with his returns while also slowing the game down to a speed the Wire seem less comfortable with.

Warrington did manage to get their noses back in front on the half-time hooter when a 50-metre Penny kick return paved the way for Currie to take three tacklers over the line with him but Saints did not allow that setback to distract them from their mission.

After Kurt Gidley was stopped inches short by Roby, McDonnell and Amor ahead of a repeat set being forced, a drop out from Jack Owens found touch when Tom Lineham and Jack Hughes left the regathering to each other.

Saints enjoyed a long spell of pressure after that and went back in front with Matty Dawson’s try off another Fages feed after Alex Walmsley had done some scattering with a barnstorming run.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook looked set for another Saints try when somehow Currie came from nowhere to stop him short.

Saints were looking most likely to score again and after Wilkin walked off in a daze, as a result of an Atkins challenge that went on report and allowed Walsh to edge Saints 18-14 in front with a penalty, Fages’ boot pinned Warrington back.

Knowles won a scramble with Russell and Gidley to touch down a deflected Walsh grubber and the scrum half followed up his conversion with a drop goal to leave Saints 11 points clear with 10 minutes remaining.

It proved to be enough despite a frantic finale in which Penny and Lineham crossed for late tries but Saints hung on grittily and deservedly.

Saints: McDonnell; Owens, Turner, Dawson, Spedding; Fages, Walsh; Walmsley, Roby, Savelio, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashworth, Wilkin. Subs: Amor, Richards, Thompson, Knowles.

Wolves: Russell; Lineham, Currie, Atkins, Penny; Gidley, Ratchford; Hill, Clark, Sims, Westwood, Hughes, Westerman. Subs: Evans, King, Jullien, Philbin.