Alex Walmsley's Grand Final desire fuelled by Saints Wembley hurt

The Super League high flyers came unstuck in the Challenge Cup Final - and as painful as that was it has intensified the team's desire to take out the top prize at Old Trafford.

Having only lost three times in Super League this year - twice in London and once in Perpignan - Saints boast a remarkable record of winning all of their matches played in the north of England this term.

But the big one is to come to finish the job, planned for in the off season but re-focused since August.

Walmsley said: “As gutted as we were about losing Wembley, the one positive was our sole objective for the season got narrowed down to one – and that is winning the Grand Final.

"At the start of the year we set our sights on three trophies, we have one, missed out on the other and now have our sights on this one.

“We are using the disappointment of Wembley to really get us going again.

If you are to lose a Grand Final you have to wait 12 months to rectify it.

“Last week’s performance was six weeks in the making from losing the cup final.

“I’d like to think we have learned from our mistakes, we know what we need to do."

Just like the build up to the semi, when talk of Wigan's young pack dominated the build up, similarly there has been much focus on the rise of the Red Devils.

Once again that pack will have to lift again they front up to seasoned Salford six.

Walmsley admits they face a different beast against an industrious side that has defied the odds this season.

The Saints prop said: “The week before we looked at the Wigan team and we saw their pack as the point where we needed to win, if we beat their pack we knew we would have a good chance of winning the game.

"Wigan have good young forwards and were arguably the form pack at the time and we had a good challenge and we rose to that.

"At Old Trafford we are coming up against England internationals, Grand Final winners, players with NRL experience – so this will be even tougher.

“That game against Wigan is long gone now – we need to put it to bed, we can’t train off that or play off that – it is a new week and we are playing for the biggest prize of them all.

"We are coming up against England internationals, Grand Final winners, players with NRL experience – so this will be even tougher.

"That game against Wigan is long gone now – we need to put it to bed, we can’t train off that or play off that – it is a new week and we are playing for the biggest prize of them all.

"We are going to have to make sure we are on our game and rise to that challenge.

We have got some very good,skilful players in our side, but we should not fool ourselves. We are only as good as how hard we are prepared to work.

The bottom line is you need to outwork the opposition. You can make it as complicated as you want, but if you are prepared to outwork the opposition then you will probably do that little bit better than them.