People post like a team with 12 has never won a game. If we were sooooooooo poor, surely the mighty Wigan could've seen us off - especially when there's a trophy at stake.

Thats the thing too, we arnt the Saints team of old, we have what we have. Equally a wigan team of old , 12 men or not would have beaten that Saints teams last night.

One of the most interesting points in this game is the amount of home grown / British players both teams had out.

Off the top of my head I think we had about 8 players that came thru the youth system at saints and I'd say Wigan prob had few more.

That's a credit to both clubs!

Indeed Saints were awful. The stats of Wigan made 7 breaks compared to Saints 1 says it all. With an extra man Saints should have been able to create more with or without halfbacks. It's possible one of the most bizarre backs to the wall victory I have ever seen and it was a typical Saints performance under Brown. I said on the day I'm glad Brown is going and I stand by that. There's a lot of potential in the current Saints team with the right coach in place.

I'm glad someone remembered there was a rugby match that happened after the sending off.
While it may not have been the magnificent game it could have been, it was exciting absorbing and kept me interested.
I didn't walk away complaining about the game, the standard of the ref or the first 3 mins. Sh£t happens, Saints won we lost both teams can take credit for getting there.
It beats the hell out of 86- nil blow outs
Money well spent, hopefully well can do it all agin next year.

The thing is, Saints have done this on quite a few occasions this year. They've been in games against big teams, passing badly, giving stupid penalties away, not making the most of possession, not kicking on the last and infuriating the hell out of the species. Then, all of a sudden, you realise 65 minutes have gone and Saints are a few points up and all of a sudden in the driving seat. I'm not sure how they do it, but its happened too many times for it to be just dumb luck. It obviously revolves around Roby and the big guys in the middle, and whether its coached or a natural product from the personnel, I don't know, but it was the difference in enough games to win us the LLS and it showed up again at old Trafford.

Brown has done the job he was brought in to do.

I think it was just a matter of time before the man advantage told and so it proved, from the moment Flower was sent off it seemed inevitable, even in the stands, that Saints were going to win at some point.

I was just very proud of the way 12 men stood tall against St Helens and actually had chances to win the game, it just didn't happen sadly for us. Credit to Saints, they can only play what's in front of them and they deservedly won the game, no qualms or complaints from me.

By being gracious in defeat do you mean not being honest? Because you aren’t. Saints won and that’s a fact, so well done to them, playing without any real play makers that’s an achievement, but without being bias I must say that Wigan were the better team on the day, and to say different would be being sycophantic to Saints, (which you are being) and if Wigan had won with a full team do you think that most of the Saints fans would have just said “well done Wigan you deserved it” and left it at that? give us a break hombre.

It was probably one of the strangest games I've ever seen.

Wigan were by far the more dangerous team despite being a man down, and had two very good chances of finishing it off in the 2nd half. I don't think saints would have come back if either Farrell or Bateman had scored.

The thing we really struggled with in the 2nd half was lack of forward power. Flower is the prop who often takes two hit ups in a set of 6. We didn't miss him in defence but in attack he was a big loss. The rest of our props were at best ineffective and at worst made the crucial mistakes to give Saints field position. An inform and motivated Taylor would have made a big difference in that game. I felt our 2nd rows and loose were far more effective in carting the ball up.

No Only 78 Mins.

I can't go along with all this 'yeah but we didn't have any halfbacks malarkey'. Ok Saints were without two recognised creative halfbacks but my point is that even with the halfbacks that were on the field the passing options were terrible. There were several times when Saints had a clear overlap and not once did they pass out wide. That just needed a pass instead of turning it back inside. It didn't need anything special from a recognised half back. I can't make my mind up whether it was just poor reads from the players or whether it was the game plan. If it was the latter then Saints are well rid of Brown and will be a better team for it no matter who takes over.

Nobody can fault Saints determination to win and for that they can be happy with the result. Wigan had chances to win even with a man down but they didn't take them and so can have no complaints overall. The sending off didn't help but that was not reason Matty Bowen took the wrong option not to pass to Charnley in the second half or why Smith missed a kickable goal.

Saints won, we lost. Be gracious, congratulate them, accept it and look forward to next season. Really winds me up when people don't give winners their due, it's no different to some of the Warrington fans whinging that we only won last year because of Monaghan and Ratchford's injuries. Don't get me wrong, we're entitled to wonder "what if?" but that's as far as it should go.

Saints Won A Championship Final against wigan in 1971 with 12 men. Billy Benyon The One Armed Bandit.

I made it clear in my post that Wigan had their chances and didn't take them hence no complaints from me and certainly not ungracious in defeat. My point was about Saints poor attacking options which had nothing to with not having recognised halfbacks. If they had moved the ball wide when they had clear overlaps then they would have won comfortably.