Why? The game for Saints was about getting through it in a professional and efficient manner without losing any players. We were always going to win and Saints defense is that good, Halifax didn't threaten the line once. I thought Saints went about things very respectfully, taking the 2 was totally unnecessary, but they did it as a doff of the cap to Halifax. There were certain sets, usually after a Saints error where we obviously stepped up the intensity and just oblierated Halifax, often winning the ball back. Then the intensity would drop again.

A few Wire fans near me were saying if Saints don't score 80 it means we've done badly. But Saints never went into that game with the intention of humiliating Halifax. We went into it with the intention of getting through the game with our place in the final secured and as much energy preserved as possible. I think we did that, the likes of Walmsley and Thompson didn't do huge minutes and we didn't let Halifax score a try. Halifax were always at arms length.

Had Halifax played any other side in Super League yesterday they would have scored at least a couple of tries and been in the game. They were superb and should be proud of themselves. They've got some very good players and really worked hard for each other. Frankly disrespectful of fans of other clubs to be mocking Saints for 'only' beating Halifax by a certain margin.

Fax battled well in defence, but never got anywhere near Saints line. There was nothing to suggest they'd score at least a couple of tries against any SL opposition, so I disagree with the sweeping statement that's highlighted.

As Fax knew they were not going to win this game I should imagine they set there stall out to make it a defensive damage limitation one, Saints have the best attack and the best defence in super league. So if Fax had played another super league with less attack and defence strengths they may have had been able to proportion more energy to score points.

I actually thought Halifax would bring more fans to Bolton than they did given it was their biggest game in 30 years.

What is their current average home crowd?

I don't know the current average, but it will start with a "1" followed by 3 digits. There's latent support in the town, but we need success on the field to build more support. Tbh, it probably didn't help the "casual" Fax fans to attend given the assumption that we'd get smashed by Saints. The location and lack of parking didn't help either, but probably wouldn't have affected the attendance.

As was noted on TV, 5 minutes from the end, you'd have thought that Fax had won and Saints lost looking at the crowd. All the noise in the last 10 minutes (ref: "twist and shout"icon_wink.gif was from the Fax fans, less in number but far greater in volume.