Word on Twitter is that saints have a 'significant absentee' today. Any word?

Roby

Check out the thread I started earlier today.

Robes has a ankle injury and misses out. Lance in at 9 and greenwood on the bench

Sounds like a tough game so far.
A good deal of possession being stifled by a lack of invention (according to French and Rooney).

Its now 11 against 13, surely saints will go onto to win this!

Gaskell's gone in for a very important try.

Another try for us. Meli, I think.
According to Big Ray, Saints have looked 100% better since we had a few fisty cuffs following a high tackle on wello.

Will the fact Widnes had 11 players on the field have had a factor too?

Very possibly. Jon Clarke got sin binned, but I don't know who else.

*edit* apparently Ben Cross got sent off.

Ben Cross got sent off and as you said, Clarke binned. Sounds like a sloppy game spoilt by Childs. Game won for your boys

We gave you a real good game today and it looked like one score either way would clinch it for a while. The turning point being the sending off and sin bin. Well done on your win.

Child's was awful and never gave much to Widnes today.Meli was the last one to touch the ball into touch and gave to Saints.Lots of lieing on and high shots by Saints.Blinking linesmen must have seen them.

We was rubbish again. If it wasn't for them going down to 11 men, we would have lost the game.

IMO we look very poor and unfit.

It looked like two fairly solid yet inspirational teams today. Them going down to 11 did have a major hand in us winning, we still struggled when they did.

I think Widnes are a good shout for the play offs this year, but we do have issues.

The try for Meli was fed by Lomax. Our two halves grew in confidence in the second half but that might have been something to do with the fact that the rest of the team actually started playing after the fisticuffs (for which Jon Wilkin was extremely lucky not to have also been shown a yellow - he should start playing and stop fighting).

Mind you, that didn't stop TP from dropping the ball twice, once right near the line to give Widnes an easy option for a try.

Well done to Gaskell, not only did he score half our points but his kicking in the second half was good; and also to Makinson whose repeated try saving tackles in the last five minutes made sure our win was secure.

It was a dire match to watch live. Unless we get some forwards with size and determination we are not going to win many games.