SAINTS were the authors of their own downfall with an error-strewn display gifting their neighbours an emphatic victory despite getting off to a dream start.

That soon became a nightmare after a series of handling errors gave the Wolves a toe-hold in the game, which backed by some ferocious home defence, saw Saints’ 14-0 lead disappear and then overhauled with 36 unanswered points in an horrific 30-minute spell.

The capitulation against a Wolves team missing key personnel was hard to stomach for the 2,000 travelling army – and it will show new boss Justin Holbrook, watching in Australia, just how much work he has to do when he finally arrives.

What is the left of the season to salvage by the time Holbrook gets here will depend on what happens in the next couple of weeks.

But the manner of this defeat, arguably Saints’ worst of the season, leaves them with a mountain to climb.

Things had started to go wrong before the first ball had been kicked, with skipper Jon Wilkin withdrawn after pulling his hamstring in warm up.

Morgan Knowles, one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dismal night, took his place in the second row.

Gamewise it started so well for Saints when they regathered the ball from the swirling kick off and went straight on the attack.

The ball went left and then right where Tommy Makinson and Jake Spedding worked space for Adam Swift in the corner with 41 seconds on the clock.

Saints repelled what Warrington threw at them initially with Matty Russell bundled into touch by Regan Grace and Ryan Morgan as he tried to sneak down the blindside.

Saints were in the driving seat, with Matty Smith’s penalty making it 8-0 and after Jack Hughes had gone high on Fages they piled forward again.

Smith combined with Fages whose long, looping pass found Morgan who took on two defenders and sliced through to make it, with Makinson’s goal, 14-0 on 27 minutes.

Just as Saints had got used to the prospect of a comfortable evening Kurt Gidley’s swirling high ball was knocked on by Swift.

A penalty and one tackle later and Benjamin Jullien was running strongly on to Declan Patton’s pass to get the Wolves foot in the door.

It gave Warrington all the encouragement they needed and a ferocious defensive set from them pinned Saints back, with Smith kicking on back foot.

It meant the hosts were soon back knocking at the door – and that opened for Mike Cooper to drive over.

Half time looked like it had rescued Saints, who were displaying a pretty soft underbelly, with all the momentum with Wolves.

But straight away they came up with an error from Adam Walker with first carry of the second half.

Although Saints repelled the Warrington wave of attack after that, another error was ruthlessly punished.

Theo Fages dropped the ball as Saints tried to open up, allowing Harvey Livett to scoop up and romp half the length of the field with the slow reaction from the men in the red vee as disappointing as the initial spillage.

Wolves led for the first time – and with Saints making errors in the teeth of some keen Warrington tackling they found themselves repeatedly under the cosh and unable to mark any decent yardage.

Their failure to make any significant busts up the middle probably showed how much they missed Alex Walmsley, but that forced them into short-cutting when shifting play wide too early, which inevitably led to errors.

Every mistake was ruthlessly punished - and so when Regan Grace flunked his play the ball Wolves responded with a Rhys Evans try.

With Livett booting the goal to make it 24-14 that was essentially game over.

The more Saints chased, the worse it got with Tom Lineham cashing in on a Tommy Makinson pass behind the back of Jake Spedding to scamper 40 metres.

And straight from the restart, although Evans’ break was stemmed by Roby, the ball was soon shifted left where Ryan Atkins rumbled over.

The scoring rate thankfully stopped, but that was a small mercy, and in what was Saints first of only to good ball sets in the second half Dom Peyroux collected a ball from the hands of Zeb Taia to ground the ball.

But with nine minutes to play a comeback as always unlikely, it was purely damage limitation.

Atkins had the last word, scoring his second try just before the hooter brought an end to a dreadful last hour of rugby league.