Re: Tonight's Game : Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:16 pm  

I said at half time to people that it looked like Saints were going through the motions in the forwards but using kicks to turn their pack and tire them out.

I felt that we might go up a gear in the second half and run over them, and for a large part of the 2nd half we did in fact do that.

Walmsley and Amor just ate up the yards in their second half stints. Cant wait though for big Mose to get fit.

Lafranchi was weak going forward again, though he does do the defensive shift. Personally would rather we had offloaded Lafranchi to Widnes than Clough.

Walsh was a bit of a turnstyle defensively, though again him and Wheeler do give us fast crisp width in the passing, and a top class kicking game.

Percival looked dangerous all night and made a number of half breaks. You get the feeling that in a year or two's time when he physically matures, he will turn those half breaks into full on defence splitting runs.

Wilkin put in a big shift defensively, I think he made 3 or 4 tackles in one set of 6 in the first half.

Overall we showed glimpses of what we are capable of, but we are still a work in progress with plenty of improvement left in us. This is a good sign as even when only playing in patches we are now good enough to dispatch a side like Hull.

Re: Tonight's Game : Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:22 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

I said at half time to people that it looked like Saints were going through the motions in the forwards but using kicks to turn their pack and tire them out.

I felt that we might go up a gear in the second half and run over them, and for a large part of the 2nd half we did in fact do that.

Walmsley and Amor just ate up the yards in their second half stints. Cant wait though for big Mose to get fit.

Lafranchi was weak going forward again, though he does do the defensive shift. Personally would rather we had offloaded Lafranchi to Widnes than Clough.

Walsh was a bit of a turnstyle defensively, though again him and Wheeler do give us fast crisp width in the passing, and a top class kicking game.

Percival looked dangerous all night and made a number of half breaks. You get the feeling that in a year or two's time when he physically matures, he will turn those half breaks into full on defence splitting runs.

Wilkin put in a big shift defensively, I think he made 3 or 4 tackles in one set of 6 in the first half.

Overall we showed glimpses of what we are capable of, but we are still a work in progress with plenty of improvement left in us. This is a good sign as even when only playing in patches we are now good enough to dispatch a side like Hull.

It a shame we can't get a little better ball to Percival, he really looks a threat with the ball.

Re: Tonight's Game : Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:40 pm  

I thought Walshy struggled in the first half to get the team going but his kicking game gave us some field position to defend.
For me Amor, Walmsley, LMS and Roby have been outstanding in the 2 games so far.

Re: Tonight's Game : Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:59 pm  

Tonight was a very hard fought win and exactly the kind of game we'd have lost over the last few seasons.

Hull are a very decent team. They've got several quality players and they were very close to overrunning us in the first half tonight and putting a big score on us. We had to hang in there and hope for more ball in the second half, which we got. When we did get the ball we did well, the forwards, particularly the props and Roby put in another great stint, that was Walmsley's best game in the vee I'd say. The referee had a big impact on the game tonight. Hull held down ridiculously tonight, there was a conscious pause of two or three seconds at every play the ball. I'd love Opta to do stats on the speed of the play the ball, as I think there would be a 2 or 3 second difference tonight.

Highlights of the game for me were Walmsley's performance (Error free tonight?) and Sia's hit on the Hull fullback. Yowsers, it was impressive that he got up to make that play the ball.

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:05 am  

Completely missed the game tonight but hey we keep on marching .

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:43 am  

bewareshadows wrote:

Completely missed the game tonight but hey we keep on marching .

So did I but had the pleasure (Ray French ?) of listening to the win on BBC Merseyside.

Still obviously not the same as being at the match; I especially wanted to be there for the Steve P tribute.
I was at last years game when we were very lucky to draw with Hull.

Well done Saints, roll on the Salford game.
It's already a better season!

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:54 am  

saint at wire wrote: So did I but had the pleasure (Ray French ?) of listening to the win on BBC Merseyside. Still obviously not the same as being at the match; I especially wanted to be there for the Steve P tribute. I was at last years game when we were very lucky to draw with Hull. Well done Saints, roll on the Salford game. It's already a better season! Just watched the highlights on extra time, they mentioned it's the first time since 2009 we have beaten hull in St. Helens! Whilst the scoreline might not be as favourable as we like (though we did also have 2 tries ruled out) I think this was a potential banana skin which we've fell for many times in the past! Improvements to be made, but still definite positives to be taken! Brown wasn't happy! http://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leagu ... ith-saints?

saint at wire wrote: So did I but had the pleasure (Ray French ?) of listening to the win on BBC Merseyside. Still obviously not the same as being at the match; I especially wanted to be there for the Steve P tribute. I was at last years game when we were very lucky to draw with Hull. Well done Saints, roll on the Salford game. It's already a better season! Just watched the highlights on extra time, they mentioned it's the first time since 2009 we have beaten hull in St. Helens! Whilst the scoreline might not be as favourable as we like (though we did also have 2 tries ruled out) I think this was a potential banana skin which we've fell for many times in the past! Improvements to be made, but still definite positives to be taken! Brown wasn't happy! http://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leagu ... ith-saints?

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 1:24 am  

I'd take an ugly win over a beautiful loss every time

Just the sort of game we'd have given away in the last few years

COYS!!!

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:05 am  

Typical saints- always taking the mickey when you've won well and slagging your team off if things aren't just as perfect as you'd like.them to be.

Re: Tonight's Game : Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:20 am  

Gazwire wrote:

Typical saints- always taking the mickey when you've won well and slagging your team off if things aren't just as perfect as you'd like.them to be.

I'm not sure anyone here is "slagging off our team" - there are areas for improvement in every game, and we should be looking to build week on week. Nothing wrong with that. Lots of players, walmsley, Wilkin, Roby, Amor, Walsh and lms are getting a lot of praise, particularly for thei second half showing.

I'd rather our coach was upset with a win, and has areas to work on, then be happy with a loss