SAINTS boss Justin Holbrook was happy with his side’s performance that saw them complete the regular Super League season with an unbeaten record after comfortably beating Huddersfield 48-6.

Two tries from Luke Thompson, with singles to Tommy Makinson, Jonny Lomax, Dom Peyroux. Regan Grace, Kyle Amor and Morgan Knowles saw the League Leaders Shield winners triumph.

There were some crackers among them - with Knowles showing the sort of finish at pace up the middle that legendary Kangaroo 13 Wayne Pearce would have been proud of.

With packmen Thompson, Alex Walmsley and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook immense and fit again Lachlan Coote faultless at the back, Saints were in front and in control from the second minute against an admittedly weakened opposition.

Holbrook was content with the proceedings, particularly as it allowed more game time for those cluster of players who missed a good chunk of games in the run up to Wembley.

He said: “With the last couple of weeks we have had there have been all different emotions.

“This was a normal week and we played that way.

“It was a really good performance tonight.

“Defensively we were fantastic again.

“We did not have a great deal more ball than them, and we did come up with a few errors.

“But conditions were tough there for a while and that rain made it hard early in the second half.

“I just thought some of our execution was real quality too and we scored some really good tries.”

It was noticeable that Walmsley was brought back into the fray early after his first stint, and he was constantly causing Giants problems, in tandem with Thompson.

It was something that will stand the team in good stead with the crunch games to start at the end of September.

“It was important to give Big Al those minutes – and to have Robes and also Cootey back in tonight to get those some guys some match fitness leading into the finals is most important.

“We are going to hit the finals at a really good time for the squad.

“Our forwards were tremendous tonight – Tommo, Big Al and Louie all played well as did Cootey at the back. Our forwards are good athletes, that is for sure, and they really play well.

“Huddersfield had a fair few troops out so we have to keep that in perspective, but you still have to play well and we did that tonight,” he said.

Saints lost centre Mark Percival after a bad head clash on four minutes, but it worked out well having James Bentley on the bench.

“He is versatile and did a good job for us out of position in the centres and played some nine for us at the end to spell Robes so showed he is pretty handy,” Holbrook said.

Saints have one more away game, but after that the next time they trot out at home will be for the semi-final against a yet to be determined opponents.

They hit those semis with their home record intact, something Holbrook is proud of.

“It is tremendous – to win all home games in the regular season is a huge effort and difficult to do.

“It has not been done as a club since 2002. For myself it is the first time nobody has mentioned Knowsley Road. I am not trying to downplay history, but even last year people spoke about it a lot.

“We have to create our mark with this ‘new’ stadium.

“It is seven years old and we are still talking about Knowsley Road – that is how good it was.

“To do what we have done here this year here and have the fans get behind us is tremendous.

“It is a great achievement,” he said.