James Roby is the heartbeat of St Helens, it's clear that if he's injured or you shut him down (ala game at Widnes mid-season last year) then Saints don't function..

So... imagine if Sam Tomkins was out for 2 months injured... how would it affect us? Do we have the players in our disposal to cope with our best attacking player not in the lineup? I know it's two different positions, i'm just asking regarding your best attacking player... Sam wasn't in the lineup last week and we all saw what happened. Is Russell good enough cover?

I don't think Saints problems are solely down to James Roby being absent. It's more the loss of James Graham for me.

Too busy looking at how we are doing. Saints have problems? D

I couldn't give a monkey's chuff about their problems, they've had their fun in the sun over the last fifteen years, it's about time they had a slump.

Graham and Roby were to Saints what Sam and Lockers are to us. Take those out of the equation and both teams are massively weakened. I think them more than us though, we still have quality match winners there in hock, finch, Leuluai, Charnley, and Richards. They are left with an average pack bar puletua and inexperienced young backs, some of whom are massively over rated.

Take Tomkins out and put Roberts of early 2010 in and you wouldn't notice the difference.

Seriously though, saints problems go further than Roby. Graham has gone, he was the reliable rock of the team. Secondly, they were carried last season in my opinion by the enthusiasm of the young players coming into the team, Gaskell and Lomax were superb especially against us in the play-offs. They are now up against it and have no leader. Wellens is also a year older and even worse than last season. Many of their players look worse than last season, I have no idea what to put this down to.

I can't see how they will get out of this slump. 5 games without a win for saints is unheard of, since I have been watching rugby league they have always put a good team on the field which would always give it everything untill the last minute. Last season when Leeds went through a similar spell you could see them improving towards the back end when their players came back from injury, they always had the experience right throughout the team in Sinfield, Peacock, McGuire, Burrow... etc... saints just don't seem to have that right now, and they don't have 3 or 4 more young players to come in with enthusiasm to boost the team like last season. The only way for this team to win is to play above themselves IMO. I can't see them making the GF but I do think they will improve a lot from now untill the play-offs. Gaskell and Lomax will grow through this experience and end up turning it on against us on good friday!

I'd really love to gloat and laugh at Saints BUT sadly last weeks shocker doesn't give us the ability to.

I'm happy Saints are struggling but I truly wish we could sit here knowing we had the best team in the league and that week in and week out we'd perform.

Until that day arrives I'm keeping shut

I can see signs of Saints now to our early form in 2005. We took the experience of Farrell, Lam and others out our team and youngsters like Aspinwall, Wild, Sculthorpe, Brown and Beswick started flattering to deceive. I don't think Saints will drop as low as we did but the next three games are a massive test for those kids there. Losing can become a bad mentality to overcome and to be frank, in all their big games (both first team and academy) that bunch haven't come through on most occasions.

Saints have papered over the cracks for years. Think of the Long, KC and Sculthorpe era. They made very ppor players look like world beaters, players like Jonkers, Edmondson, Stankevitch, Gardner etc have pretty much done nothing since they stopped playing for Saints. It is no coincidence that they haven't won a trophy since all three were at the club.

I think we've found out in the past never to speak too soon about the Saints, but, immediately, interesting times ahead at Langtree Park.....

Let's hope that Saints start winning again soon but we beat them on Good Friday. I want Saints back in the top four.

Are you mad ?

Remember the dark days of 75-0 ? Granted they won nothing for it, but I would welcome smashing them by a similar score.

They can languish at the bottom of super league getting battered every week for me

I want them at the foot of the table, so we can watch their fickle support trickle away....

The last thing we need is for Saints to end up like Bradford are now.

The Leeds vs Bradford derby is a farce and we don't want that for the biggest club game in RL