THE post-mortem of Saints’ defeat may look at the ring-rustiness of debutant Ben Barba, examine the experimental half back pairing of Jonny Lomax and Matty Smith and regret the way they gifted the Warriors a 14-0 lead.

But an underlying feature of this 26-16 defeat – and almost every other loss against Wigan in the past nine years – was the failure of the pack to really front up and match Wigan’s aggression.

Not for the first time Wigan’s six dusted their opposite numbers, with only really Luke Thompson earning his spurs among the big men.

Not all of Wigan’s tactics were above board – and Willie Isa can count himself lucky to stay of the field for his tackle on Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s leg - with the incident going on report.

But Saints need a bit more fire in their bellies, more players in the thick of it who are going reply in kind and lay down a marker when it comes to hey lads, hey.

Wigan were dogged in their approach – admirable given their Wembley exploits six days earlier ¬- and their aggressive tackling from the high kick off essentially meant that Saints kicked on the back foot in their first set allowing Wigan to counter.

The net result was centre Oliver Gildart striding over on the right with their first attack of the evening.

By the sixth minute the same player had doubled the visitors’ lead after cashing in on a Ryan Morgan fumble after over-running a Barba pass.

A George Williams penalty for messing at the play the ball, which possibly could have gone the other way, gave Wigan the perfect cushion that they would need when fatigue crept in during the last half hour.

It also threw a spanner in the works of whatever Saints’ gameplan was – and there was always an element of ‘catch-up’ within their hap-hazard approach.

The poor start was a body blow, but those early wounds became fatal when Saints failed to take their half chances as the game progressed.

They had a Zeb Taia try chalked off for a Mark Percival knock on as he competed for skipper Jon Wikin’s high ball.

However, Saints did break the deadlock five minutes later when Lomax found Barba from the scrum, with the deceptively powerful full back forcing his way through a heap of bodies and, despite appearing to drop it, the video ref gave it the nod.

Saints had a toe-hold and should have hit Wigan with a double-whammy when Mark Percival pierced the line and unleashed speedster Regan Grace down the left flank.

Having burned off his opposite number the young Welshman backed himself to go round the covering Sam Tomkins, ignoring the supporting Lomax on his right.

Alas, Tomkins nailed him just short of the corner flag and chance went begging and the Wigan chests swelled even further.

Back Saints came, but attack fell just short when Morgan’s rushed pass for Tommy Makinson went into touch.

Wigan pressed again at the other end, but Saints had their defence head back on and twice repelled back-to-back sets.

With seconds ticking down to half time Saints pressed with Barba foiled in his mission to the line.

Saints continued to create half chances, usually from individual breaks, with Lomax dropping Dom Peyroux’s slipped pass after he had burst through the line.

A Saints knock on, after a high Wigan kick, gifted the visitors another repeat set and from there one missed tackle, and swift hands, created an overlap for Anthony Gelling to stride over with ease.

And virtually from the restart, with Saints still licking their wounds, Joe Burgess broke down the left before sending Williams over for what looked like game over.

Taia had other ideas and on 58 minutes he ran a good line to bump off a couple of defenders en route to the line.

Three minutes later Saints gave it some air and Peyroux squirted out a suspiciously forward pass for Makinson go over and throw the game back in the melting pot in the final quarter.

But Wigan had the wherewithal to hang on, keep Saints at arms’ length and forcing them into a series of harmless and a little aimless Smith up and unders that were easily defused.

At this stage Wigan must have been goosed, but Saints just could not find those special pieces of play to ask the right questions.

The clock became as tough an opponent as the Cherry and Whites – and that impacted on some of the panic plays Saints put on as they sought a gamechanger.

But alas it never came in a closing stages marked by a couple of flare-ups and a daft sin-binning for Isa for a push on McCarthy-Scarsbrook in the last minute.

Defeat puts Saints well and truly behind the eight-ball and with three games to go they need three wins and the other results going their way if they are to make the semi-final.

Saints: Barba; Makinson, Morgan, Percival, Grace; Lomax, Smith; Amor, Roby, Thompson Taia, Wilkin, Knowles. Subs: Walmsley, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Douglas, Peyroux.

Wigan: Tomkins; Marshall, Gelling, Gildart, Burgess; Williams, Leuluai; Nu’uausala, McIlorum, Clubb, Bateman, Farrell, O'Loughlin. Subs: Powell, Tautai, Isa, Wells