SAINTS as good as secured their top six play-off spot with a 40-4 win over Castleford Tigers - and now have an eye on the top four.

They scored eight tries in total, with three coming from Jon Bennison, with the others coming from Jake Burns, Agnatius Paasi, Tommy Makinson, George Delaney and Jonny Lomax.

Afterwards coach Paul Wellens gave his reaction.

Q: Thoughts on that performance?

PW: I liked a lot of what we did tonight and thought we showed a bit of fluidity with the ball.

Credit to the halves there because Lewis has come back into the team after a period of time out, Jack has been out for a period of time too, but they really looked like they were working together and working together well out there, which made us look us look really threatening at times.

Q: Any worry going into the game because we've be talking all week about ‘must win’ - was the attitude focused on that?

PW: To be honest I was very confident all week. The group was in a really good spot.

We did a few things differently this week and trained away from our training base and out at Sale Sharks.

They were very welcoming in terms of allowing us to use their training facility, which was fantastic just for us to get something a little bit different.

The lads really responded to that. Sometimes a change of environment is good. There's a great energy about the way that we trained and I was confident coming into the game tonight that we would see that out on the field as well.

Q: With having so many players back after a long absence – was that the perfect game, the way it panned out?

PW: The way it panned allowed us to get Iggy and Belly out there in the middle together, and working in tandem as they do.

It allowed us to get Daryl Clark the game time that we needed and obviously similar with Mark Percival and Jack Welsby again building on his 40 minutes from last week.

Once the game was relatively comfortable in terms of the scoreboard, it did take the pressure off and allowed us then take Jack Welsby and Mark Percival off the field, and look after some of those blokes who were coming back, pretty much a week or two weeks ahead of schedule.

Q: In terms of the results itself, the way things have gone tonight you're almost certainly in the top six. You've got plenty to play for next week the way the results have gone tonight for you?

PW: Potentially we are playing, for a for a home tie in the playoffs, potentially.

This is the nature of the competition this year one or two wins can propel you three or four spots.

It's been that congested, particularly in and around that 4,5, 6, 7 area for the last few weeks, which we've been right in the in the midst of.

It was an important two points tonight, and again next week we've got a great opportunity to go and play against the good side in their own backyard, in a hostile environment, which is what playoff football's all about.

We played them a few weeks ago and were on the wrong side of a drubbing really.

You can say we owe them one, but we're going there to compete and compete hard and again compete for two points and hopefully that will reflect in the ladder. I'd love us to get an opportunity to come back here once more this season.

Q: And a win next week at Leigh and it might not been Tommy’s last home appearance?

PW: It was great tonight that we got to recognise his contribution to this club over the years, along with Sione, along with Lewis Dodd.

If we do get the opportunity to come back here in a couple of weeks, the night will be purely around performing winning getting into the next round of the playoffs, we don't have time to do all the stuff that we saw here tonight and what we saw here was lovely.

You saw how much affection the fans have for those departing players and we know behind closed doors how much we love and respect them and the sacrifice they've made to help this club be successful in recent years.

But it's great to see the fans appreciate that too.