SAINTS coach Paul Wellens has expressed his frustration over the Matty Lees sin-binning in the last quarter of the Friday’s defeat.

Although Lees’ 65th minute challenge on Leigh full back Gareth O’Brien was punished as a high shot, the Match Review Panel later deemed that there had been no head contact and therefore no charge was brought.

Although Wellens was sympathetic to the task facing referees in the heat of the moment, particularly those unable to use TV replays, he warned against officials becoming “trigger happy” in sending off players without a clear picture of what has happened.

Wellens said: “I watched it when I got back home and could see that there was no contact with the head and knew that the Match Review Panel would see it the same way.

“There is a little bit of frustration there - because I could understand at first look how you may think it was a high tackle, I get that.

“But as a game we have to be really careful - even when we don’t have replays at games - that you have to be 100 per cent sure that there has been contact with the head and that there has been an illegal tackle if you are going to be sending blokes from the field.

“Ultimately we lost a key player at the back end of an important game and whether or not it did have a bearing on the result, it certainly did not help our situation.”

While Lees was off Leigh came back from a 12-4 deficit to hit the front with a quick brace of tries and ended up winning 20-12.

Although Wellens says his focus is now on getting his team ready for the game against Hull, that did not stop him and the players being a little frustrated with what happened.

It is two weeks in a row where an on-field call has gone against them late in the game - and on both occasions it has proven costly on the scoreboard.

“The refs have a really tough job and have to make a call in the heat of the moment but I just think we have become a bit too trigger happy when it comes to sending players from the field when we are not quite clear on what has actually happened.

“At first look it did look to me like a high tackle, but the officials are on the field and closer to the action than I was.

“I am human, there’s obviously a little bit of frustration there - likewise with the players - but it is imperative that we focus on us.

"We have lost a couple of games, although that is not the end of the world it is very unusual for us - we knew that we were going to be in for a tough few weeks and that is something we are all comfortable with."

Wellens said he has sent an email to Super League referees with his initial thoughts on the incident.

“I don’t need a response because what I am focusing on now is what we are going to do as a team next week.

“However, I felt it important to put on record my feelings with those incidents so if such an incident arises again then it is not the first time I have raised it,” Wellens said.