ONCE again Saints proved how defence wins matches as they kept the Wolf from the door in a 20-18 win at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, writes Mike Parsons.

As the Super 8s got off to a frenzied start, it was Keiron Cunningham’s men who held the decisive edge at Wembley-bound Warrington and gave a further reminder to their rivals that they are firmly in the mix for the end of season honours.

Despite the long turnaround since that mighty win at Wigan, Saints showed in the opening 25 minutes that they had lost none of the appetite for rearguard heroics as time and time again they soaked up everything the competition’s highest points scorers could throw at them.

That not only brought periods of panic into the Warrington attack but helped Saints’ confidence levels to go on and win the match.

The men in the red V were hanging on at the death and again it was the urgency in defence that finally saw Saints lower Warrington’s colours on their own turf for the 21st time in the Super League era.

Welsh international winger Rhys Evans, and the Wire crowd, all thought he had won the game for the hosts in the 78th minute as he dived over in the corner.

But it was the thickness of the leather on his right boot that proved to be Evans’ undoing courtesy of outstanding scrambling defence from Mark Percival, who threw himself into harm’s way to just do enough to save Saints’ bacon.

It was not a perfect performance. There were errors with the ball, the kicking game could have been better at times and despite their monumental effort with backs to the wall there were lapses that led to tries being conceded.

However, Cunningham was right to label it a ‘brave’ display in a sixth win on the bounce.

Saints did have some early fortune as a buoyant Wire camped on their try line, with skipper Chris Hill getting over the line but only doing so with a double movement.

As can often happen, the side applying all the pressure can fall to a sucker punch.

A break by the impressive Jordan Turner led to Saints forcing a drop-out and on the next set the NRL-bound stand off put Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook through a huge hole, with Percival goaling.

Warrington returned to level-pegging in almost surprising circumstances considering Saints’ efforts on their try line.

But Daryl Clark somehow ducked and got between Kyle Amor and Jon Wilkin from dummy half, with Kurt Gidley stepping up to bang over the kick.

Four minutes later Cumbrian prop Amor made some amends with his part in the try of the game that handed Saints a 12-6 interval lead.

His offload allowed Turner and Percival to ship the ball wide to Adam Swift. Evans gave the speedster too much of a look at the outside and he was gone in a flash before finding Jonny Lomax on his inside to finish off.

The start of the second half was all Saints and this time it was Warrington finding a way to cling on for dear life.

A Percival penalty goal in the 59th minute, arising from Hill holding down Alex Walmsley close to the sticks, was all that Saints had to show for their domination of territory and possession, but they had an all-important eight-point lead.

Five minutes later Wire were back in a tense and thrilling encounter.

Jack Hughes, celebrating an extended contract at Warrington, crashed over from a Gidley pass although he was perhaps lucky to be on the field after an unsavoury incident a little earlier when replays showed him with his fingers in McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s eye during a melee.

Gidley’s conversion cut the gap to two points again and the game became even more frantic as a winning try was sought.

That much-needed composure came from Turner, who showed Herculean strength to carry Hughes and Gidley for three metres before doing a great impression of Stretch Armstrong to touch down. Gidley’s kick made it 20-12 with 10 minutes remaining.

Then, out of nothing and having kept July’s Super League Player of the Month quiet for the majority of the game, Ryan Atkins scooted 40 metres out of dummy half after leaving Greg Richards all ends up with his Fred Astaire footwork.

It was a two-point ball game again but it proved to be just enough in the end.

From the reactions of the players and fans at the end, it was clear to see how much the night’s successful work meant to everyone involved.