SAINTS coach Justin Holbrook was disappointed after seeing his side beaten by a Morgan Smith drop goal in golden point.

It was an off-colour display from the Super League leaders, resting five players in Lachlan Coote, Tommy Makinson, Jonny Loma, Zeb Taia and Alex Walmsley, and they paid for some sloppy handling errors and a lack of direction with the ball.

Having battled back to tie the game up with a late Regan Grace try, converted by Danny Richardson from the touchline, a Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook knock on gifted the Broncos the perfect position to drop the winning goal.

After the game Justin Holbrook said: “I am disappointed not to win, but it was a great game of rugby league out there today and well done to London for coming out with the win.

“We made a few too many errors, losing the ball with them picking up and scoring.

“We made a few too many errors to let them back in and they were a better side the second half.

“We have to be better than that, especially away from home. We were not far off with the detail but we looked completely lost when we had the ball and that is unlike us.

“If we had of won that it would have been down to sheer guts from a side that never gives in because we didn’t play well.”

Last year Holbrook was criticised for not resting players and rolling through the season with his best 17 all year and then falling short.

There has been a change in plan this term, but some may still query this latest strategy.

“To rest five guys is always a bit risky, but we fell just short.

“It won’t hurt us today, we are in a good spot and tried hard, too, with the number of things we did wrong today we could have really struggled,” Holbrook said.

“But we got it to golden point, so the effort was good from a lot of players.”

Holbrook confirmed that James Roby, who scored Saints’ opener, will go in for surgery this week after struggling with a niggling injury that has meant he has been in and out this term.

“Robes has been struggling for a few weeks so will go in for some minor surgery this week so will be missing for four weeks,” he said.