MATTY Smith showed exactly what Saints had been missing with a masterful display on his first game back helping guide the team to a 31-6 victoty.

Fully recovered from the broken leg sustained in the pre-season friendly the scrum half’s leadership and varied kicking game helped Saints play the game in the right part of the field and build pressure.

He was well assisted by skipper Jon Wilkin, and in a good all-round display Theo Fages and Mark Percival also excelled and big Alex Walmsley stood tall in the middle.

They bossed the first half, and following a patient but scoreless opening Saints let rip in the second quarter with three tries in six minutes giving them an 18-0 lead at the break.

Zeb Taia opened the scoring with his first for the club when he cashed in on Matty Russell’s failure to defuse James Roby’s grubber kick.

Roby had not been on the pitch long, coming off the bench for Tommy Lee, but he gave a quality 55 minutes and provided a spark straight away after sitting out the intense early exchanges.

Saints doubled the lead on 34 minutes when Jack Owens collected Smith’s pin-point cross kick to touch down And then Mark Percival raced on to Taia’s short pass to hurtle through a hole, before drawing the full back to send Swift over.

With Saints enjoying a purple patch, any feeling that half time may have come at the wrong time was added to when the Wolves were first out the blocks in the second half.

A rare Smith mistake, when he put his kick out on the full gave the Wolves their first real chance to attack.

Some direct running paved the way for Kurt Gidley to collect Kevin Brown’s pass to open Wolves’ account.

That may have given the Wolves a toe-hold in the game, but a Saints response full of composure ensured that the visitors failed to seriously threaten again.

With Smith kicking smartly, Saints rode that brief period of Wolves resistance – and with a defence remaining otherwise solid they forced the visitors into an increasingly jittery performance, Percival converted a penalty, after missing an earlier one, to again make it a three-score lead.

Although Warrington, bottom of the pile without a point, still field a quality side – they were made to look like a disjointed outfit and continued to make handling errors as the game progressed.

In the times when the Wolves had good ball, Saints’ defence kept its shape to frustrate the visitors.

Saints as good as wrapped up the game when Swift polished off a fine effort in the corner, collecting Wilkin’s well-placed bobbling diagonal grubber, to claim his second.

And then in a shrewd bit of play Smith chipped over a drop goal to give them a four-score lead an unassailable mountain for the hosts to climb.

With the game in the bag, Alex Walmsley was rewarded for an energetic and aggressive display by running a great line from Lee's reverse pass to crash through.

Percival’s conversion completed the rout – and confirm only Saints’ second home win against Wolves since leaving Knowsley Road.

Saints: Makinson; Owens, Morgan, Percival, Swift; Fages, Smith; Walmsley, Lee, Douglas, Taia, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Wilkin. Subs: Roby, Amor, Walker, Peyroux.

Warrington: Ratchford; Russell, Evans, King, Johnson; Brown, Gidley; Hill, Clark, Cooper, Westwood, Hughes, Westerman. Subs: Sims, Dwyer, Crosby, Livett.