There are 4 teams left, and in my view, any 2 of those teams are capable of reaching the GF.

I will read through the thread properly later, but what a match that was. We need to be honest and say: we got hammered in many areas of the field and could have been out of it before we finally turned the tide in the second half. Even then, we showed a bit of naïvété in conceding that last try.

It goes without saying but Williams is quite an incredible player, perhaps as good as I've seen in the half back position for Warrington. Without him, we lose that game 30-4.

Vaughan and Musgrove need to give us more or we wil be rolled by Hull Kr and certainly Wigan. I dont quite know what went wrong tonight but there was no grunt, no yardage and all our metres were from backs escaping from difficult situations.

Philbins contribution in that extra time period was absolutely massive. Two huge runs of 10 and 15 metres a piece, to then defensively chase Lomax into going outside and having to play on the fly resulting in Percivals panicked kick.

Jb
I think you have to give a lot of credit to Saints. They were quick off the line and did a good job of smothering us when coming out of defence.
But there's a hell of a lot of resilence in the team.
I fear HKR more than Wigan to be honest.

I thought I (grudgingly) did give a lot of credit to Saints. For long periods they did a job on us.

Hull KR are a very good side but let's remember they have very limited experience of winning semi finals and finals; our job is to put them under pressure and make them nervous.

Leigh will take care of Wigan..................Hopefully.

All those last minute victories that Saints pulled off against us, often when we had been the better team. I don’t recall the Saints fans complaining, just gloating “it’s the sign of a Chapion team”, “Never write Saints off” etc etc. We weren’t at our best, but we are in the semis and they aren’t. I’m going to enjoy the moment, and I really don’t understand how any Wire fan feels the need to be critical, straight after such a victory.

And yes, I do know you’re entitled to your opinion.

Probably the difference is that Saints regularly won Grand Finals and we never have, hence there's more scepticism for us.

Yesterday was shaping up as a classic Saints script, late try to take it to golden point and charging down our first drop goal attempt. I knew what was going to come next - we'd concede a penalty, they'd charge up field and kick a drop goal themselves, season over.

But we didn't, and they went away from the script with their fifth tackle play on the following set and failing to get in a good kick.

Good to get through it and get the play off monkey off the back. Saints are a completely different beast when they play like that, Makinson and Percival personify that Saints mentality, and really challenged us to return fire.

Another impressive performance from Currie, but Williams played like the marquee player we need, dragged us into the game and found the way to win it.

In the cold light of day......

I'm still buzzin'.....

Another point, Saints put in what was possibly their best performance of the season, we were some way short of our best and won. Mind you, according to the ever reliable Redvee every one of our points was gifted to us by them. Wish they had gifted them to us at kick off, would have saved me a fortune on Sanatogen (other nerve tonics are available).

Ben Currie immense. Must have been close to 60 tackles.

Williams quite rightly will get the plaudits.

Pack will need to be a lot better with go forward if we are to beat HKR or Wigan. We got out of jail in that department by the meters we made on the edges with Ashton in particular.

I see; so Leigh lose next week then?

I agree that I just don't see any need to be negative or criticise any players. Yes some players made mistakes, but so did some Saints players. Even team does in every game. It's not a computer game with a cheat code on making them infallible.

It was a great game, and winning in such dramatic circumstances in such a big fixture against that opposition makes it a contender for the best night ever at the HJ. I've been going there since game one, and to Wilderspool before that, so I am in a position to judge on that one.

If your first instinct after that was to have a pop at Drinkwater (or any other player) and start over analysing every perceived weakness, then you're either a frustrated coach or just a joyless bore.