Saddened- we all know that it's all bollox. Will be such a cracker tomorrow. I have to say as well
that I was willing Leeds to win tonight as we all hate Wigan.
It's like paper, stone and scissors with Wire, Saints and Wigan.
We normally beat Wigan, Wigan (apart from the recent playoff) normally beat
you in (roughly the last 2 years), and you normally beat us. Aside from the Leeds factor, the theory
seems to work.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not like Saddened who I reckon [iwould[/i be upset if all his cherished beliefs were brought down by a Saints win at O/T next week. I'd dearly, dearly love to win the next 2 games and be proved spectacularly wrong - the problem is that I am just so rarely am however. I see little chance of us pulling 2 backs-to-the-wall against-the-odds wins out of the bag in successive weeks against superior opposition that's all, and I'm firmly of the opinion that another (likely) defeat at O/T will do nothing but jeopardise our chances of silverware next season. As a Saints fan the best possible thing that could happen for us is to win at O/T next week and dispose of the monkey at long last. The second best thing that could happen is to lose tomorrow, draw a line under the 5 in-a-row and start again with a fresh new winning mindset under a fresh new coach next season. I just think there's genuinely little chance of the first happening unless a bomb lands on Leeds' training ground next week that's all, and maximising our chances for next season is my priority instead. To do that we need a loss tomorrow.

Hang on a minute - read any of my posts and you'll struggle to find anyone on this board who expresses remotely as much faith in our players, board and future on a consistent basis as I do - don't tar me with the Saddened brush I'm just being realistic as to our chances over the next 2 games and what would be best for us going into next season, that's all.

No disrespect at all to you Northants Saint, but In my humble opinion, you and the Saints fans have been
blessed over many years by watching some of the greatest players and a team which has has hit the rl
heights, only matched by that Wigan side in the eighties. Any present Saints team, unless they sign Lyon
and the rest of the superstars back then, will never be the same again. Even as a Wire fan, I have
to say that your team in the first half of this century was unbelievable- with Cunningham, Pryce,
Long, Joint, Graham, Farsavaloo, and many others was incredible. Times are changing, but
Saints will always be up there. They still are now. They're a club which every side in sl aspires
to, including wire, and I think I understand your concerns about the side, but, get behind them-
there still class with all those quality forwards and quality backs if you give them chance.

(it's taken 15 minutes for me to write the above so apologies if i''m behind with posts)

Again - read any of posts to see what I think about any of these issues, namely:

1. We're a decent coach, a half and maybe another prop away from having a squad capable of cleaning up next season.
2. Even without them Saints will still be there or thereabouts in the trophy shakeups and will finish top 4 again easy.
3. In comparative terms the current Saints squad is pretty much as good as it was in '96, '00 or '06 given how much the standard of the rest of the league has declined.

There's no general doom and gloom from me and I'm mega excited for our chances in the new season and just want this tedious awful season with our current tedious awful team to be behind us.

And the British game will never again see the likes of a team like any of those Saints sides or the great '80s/'90s Wigan sides as the players that made up those sides just aren't available to SL teams any more.

This is a common theme in humans too much of a good thing and it becomes mundane,Your right Saints were awesome we never trully savoured and appreciated what we were experiencing at the time and got complacent,expecting wins all the time etc.I cant believe the attitude of some saints fans they are hypercritical ,ffs we are 80 minutes from our 6th meeting with Leeds at OT lower teams would be exhultant just to be were we finished this year .Its anti climax syndrome,the higher the expectation the lower the degree of acceptance of failure.

As a Rhinos fan i would love to face you in the G/F again.

Tonight, beating the arrogant flag waving pies was enough for me this year.

Hope we win next week, but if we dont would be happy for saints to win (which would be well deserved) - also James Roby for MOS is well overdue.

I should have included the great Widnes side as well during the late 80s and the Bradford side as well (turn of
this century) and the present Leeds side (alongside Saints and Wigan, as already mentioned). I really hope
Wire can do it this year. Just so that we can say we've done it.

I'm backing this idea now. I really did not give Leeds much chance of getting to the GF this year. In fact I thought they had less chance than us and I did not give us great odds.

I think the saddened effect is similar to how Wire felt all those years, when playing Saints.

We hope to win, we want to win, we'd love to win but the experience of losing so many on the bounce now feels less like a sporting contest and more like a right of passage. I'm super excited for tomorrow, if we get past Wire, I'll be super excited for the final and I will believe, but in the back of my mind in both games I'll be thinking here we go again.

Saints fans want to break this cycle of losses and I suppose in some mis-guided way any change seams positive to some, where as losing in the semi is worse than losing in the final. It's shows how spoiled we've been over the years to be able to have fans who think this way, when other fans would just be happy to make the GF. Conversely some Leeds fans are now so used to winning the GF, that they can even hold some sympathy for us and would not begrudge us winning one, this year or next.

It's a bit of a bizzar senario and I actually think a loss tomorrow will cause alot of us who have been very lucky to see what not making a GF means. It means you are out of the competition and it's not a better result after all.

COYS - if we want to break this final run, then we need to get to the final, as if we don't we still keep the bad run, it does not go away.

Last week I really wanted a Wigan v Saints final. But with the arrogance of Wigan with Lenegan, Wane, Tomkins and O'Loughlin each putting in there five penneth worth in the media, it obviously had a positive effect on the Leeds team on team bonding.
Can we do the same, the problem is its only the Wire fans who are providing the arrogance in talking about GF tickets and the world club challenge. Rush and Cunningham want s a ferocious start to the game, if we get that then I reckon we will be in with a great chance, I am expecting a close game, we need to give the team plenty of vocal support.

Five penneth, no more than two-penneth surely. Come on you sound like you’re saying it’s only Wigan, SW, IL and the fans who throw their chests out and gob off in the media and on these boards, or that they are the worst, give us a break, that’s not true. Check the boards and you will see they are all more or less the same! Leeds won and deserved it, we lost and deserved it. We all say things in bravado, I know Rush has, and that’s fine, but don’t try to make out that Wigan are any different to anyone else, they’re not.

Fans can gob off, even players can gob off but when a coach or chairman do it, it makes them look like fools.

Oh and thanks to Lenegan for also firing Saints up saying no one wants them in the final(paraphrase)