Take a bow Mr Holbrook!..... A few months ago many of us including myself were wondering if we would make the top 8 and even had worries of how we would get on in the middle 8s and the prospect of the million pound play off game if it came to that on an opponents home ground. But the Saints spirit is now back in the team along with the supporters enthusiasm for next season to start as soon as possible after the last two months. YES, we do have changes to make, personnel to go and better to come in. YES, we can improve our skills level, our running lines, more players in motion in attack etc. YES, still lots to improve on all over the park....BUT what an end of season we have had compared to how we were thinking in the first few months of the season. The club need to build on our reignited enthusiasm now and get the supporters even closer to the club. Justin Holbrook imo is key to this and has been a breath of fresh air into the club. Hes a good communicator, really down to earth, nice person, includes the reserves, Academy and scholars (not all coaches have previously been interested in the future.....), tells it as it is, can make decisions (more to come in the close season) and importantly DOES look to be a good coach and a good fit with our club. So Mr Rush, get Justin meeting more of the fans and galvanising the supporters and the town behind the team, I think we have a real gem here whom we can use more of.

Great game last night and so very close to making it to the GF, the spirit of "NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS" is back!

BIG THANK YOU to all the coaches etc at the club for helping to turn around the season. BIG THANK YOU also to all the players for helping turn the season around of this great club. To wear the red V should ALWAYS be seen as a privilege and to cross that white line with a shirt on takes guts.

Where do I sign for next seasons season ticket!....Onwards and upwards

COYS!!

To many stupid mistakes in key parts of the game. Yes we can blame Percy for not kicking the goals but the was other factors.

For me the key moments -

1 ) It's criminal to lose the ball off the kick off and be 6-0 down after 52secs, you can't do that in big games.

2) Losing the ball in the last min of the game to give cas the opportunity to score. If we take that kick then we win the game.

3) The Ryan Morgan penalty in the last min of the game. The dumbest bit of play I've seen all year. It was 100% the correct call by James child and I honestly can't believe he did that.

4) No direction in golden point. We was all over the place. We lost all composure and I blame Smith. He said he's here for his game management, then he needs to look at Luke Gale. He was directing everyone for that drop goal and look at the room he had on both attempts compared to our scruffy rushed attempt. The difference in golden point was they had a proper number 7 and we have probably the worst 7 in super league.

We got to credit the players effort, attitude and heart but mistakes like that are killers in big games

Makinson.

You are the love child of "Wiggy Hemmings and Stevo", I claim my £5...

Well played Saints didn't deserve to lose. What were they thinking allowing percival to carry on kicking. He wasn"t learning each kick mirrored the last. I'd like to see the kick off again in last minute as i felt cas were offside from the kick.

I defy anyone to not be proud of this team this year. Man for man, we have punched well above our station all season. We have the worst set of half backs I have ever seen at St Helens , one decent forward, a very good hooker and a couple of half decent backs. To get to within a whisker of a grand final, people should be proud.

Regards

King James

I watched game as a neutral last night and thought you was unlucky couple of bad calls and shocking goal kicking.but as a neutral who only really watches saints on tele or when you play us i cant understand why smith plays before farges and feel had farges been on pitch longer you would of won

I couldn't write last night because I was too upset. Still absolutely gutted this morning, after a pretty terrible night's sleep too.

A few thoughts:

Ryan Morgan did make a howler, but he had also been defending against Shenton and Eden for the full game, who have been scoring tries for fun all season, and had kept them in his pocket for all but one break of the game. He was unlucky, because while it was a penalty, Child ignored many other possible penalties in those final minutes. The bloke will presumably be suffering this morning, but the only reason he was able to commit that brainfart was because of the work he'd put in in the preceding 79 minutes.

I've seen people saying Percy had a bad game. Obviously he did with the boot. But that's a bit unfair on the rest of his game. Defensively he was sound against a much bigger man in Webster, and he made a lot of metres when we passed the ball out to him - even in our own half. His try needed scoring too. If I had a complaint about Percy, it's that he's not as good as a centre needs to be at playing with other people. There seems to be very little understanding between him and his winger, and he frequently bobs and weaves and beats a man or two, but rarely passes to anyone in support after a break's been made. That is the part of his game Holbrook needs to develop in the close-season.

A weakness in our game, which is a relic from the Cunningham 5-drives-and-a-kick era is that we've had support play and effective offloading coached out of us. Saints made a number of offloads in the game last night, and lots of them went to ground, because the receiver simply wasn't expecting the ball. Contrast to Cas, where offloads always not only went to hand, but to a player who was expecting it and ready to do something with it. Likewise with breaks. The most glaring example was when Percy simply gave up on his supporting run when Makinson passed it out. In a confident attacking side, Percy would have run through whether the ball was presented or not - just in case. But our players have come to expect the tackle to be taken, so they don't push up. You also see that again and again in the middle of the park. Roby, Walmsley, Fages - all these lads get through the line and look for offloads, but they very rarely have anyone following up down the middle. Again, a real contrast to Cas, who always have support runners in numbers. That's the difference between a team which expects a pass and one which has lost the habit. This is the biggest area of work for Holbrook in the close season - teaching us to run support expecting to make breaks.

Matty Smith. I just don't really understand this situation. He's acknowledged to be slow and not particularly creative. But the assets are supposed to be a big kicking game and an old guiding head. But his kicking is average (no 40-20 for us at crucial moments), and at pressure moments when the team needed guidance, it clearly wasn't coming. The setting up for our drop-goal attempt was awful. Every single one of those plays should have been orchestrated by Smith, and he should have been in a position to have a good shot. Instead, it was chaotic and wasted. Halfback is the area where we have to take action. Last night, Luke Gale outplayed both our halves on his own (when his own partner was having a stinker). When was the last time a Saints halfback took control of a game and really bossed it? Probably Luke Walsh in his first season before his leg break. Smith isn't our man. Richardson - given coaching and time - might be. But we have to do something, because we won't win anything until we have an effective halfback partnership.

Having said all that, we were one catch and a brainfart away from Old Trafford, where I would have fancied us to beat either Leeds or Hull. Rewind the clock to even a couple of weeks ago when we were losing to Hull and Wigan at home, and that was very unlikely. Rewind to the first half of the season when we were losing to Leigh while playing the worst rugby of the last 20 years, and it would have been unthinkable. There may be huge disappointment this morning, but at least there's hope for next year.

very good point. I remember walking out of LSV at the start of the season seriously concerned that we would be fighting in the middle 8's in September. In fact, that night I was incredibly close to giving up on the club and the team.

The turnaround from the performance that night to last night is incredible, and Holbrook and the players can be proud of what they have achieved this season, and we can all be very optimistic about 2018 if Holbrook can continue to have the same positive influence over the off season.

A disappointing night, but I for one cannot wait until next season.

You did? When?

I would imagine that was 2014 when we won the hub cap and the grand final,now scurry back under your rock.

Come on no serious Saints fan can think that season - now 3 years in the past - constitutes a recovery.