St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 10:44 am  

As fantastic as a derby win is we've got bigger fish to fry this season. Chance to go 6 points clear of Saints in 5th.

Recent history is in our favour, the cup game wasthe best I've seen us play in a long time. But we can't take anything for granted.

Any injury news? Frank I think picked up a dead leg, Sneyd was a doubt before the game. Ellis looked in some discomfort.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 11:11 am  

Mr Bloggs wrote:

As fantastic as a derby win is we've got bigger fish to fry this season. Chance to go 6 points clear of Saints in 5th.

Recent history is in our favour, the cup game wasthe best I've seen us play in a long time. But we can't take anything for granted.

Any injury news? Frank I think picked up a dead leg, Sneyd was a doubt before the game. Ellis looked in some discomfort.

If we win, the points difference will be in our favour too, so more like 6 and a half points ahead! As long as we carry on picking up the two points and are in or around that top four come the split, I'll be happy.

Singing and celebrating top spot was great yesterday, but there's still a long way to go. Alternatively, it's now ours to lose!

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 11:37 am  

Radford will have some tough choices to make with his selections next week. I guess the hardest being does Carlos play at 6? He might stick him on the bench again since it worked well, but I like to have the extra forward.

It's mad that guys like Thompson and Green are fit but can't make a first choice 17. They'd stroll into most sides.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 12:25 pm  

nothing against Washbrook, but IMO Thompson is more effective when coming off the bench.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 12:33 pm  

Mr Bloggs wrote:

As fantastic as a derby win is we've got bigger fish to fry this season. Chance to go 6 points clear of Saints in 5th.

Recent history is in our favour, the cup game wasthe best I've seen us play in a long time. But we can't take anything for granted.

Any injury news? Frank I think picked up a dead leg, Sneyd was a doubt before the game. Ellis looked in some discomfort.

The biggest thing in your favour will be the fact that saints look shot, by far the worst team this weekend. Cunningham seems massively under pressure.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 12:42 pm  

barham red wrote:

The biggest thing in your favour will be the fact that saints look shot, by far the worst team this weekend. Cunningham seems massively under pressure.

Cunningham has created the pressure himself. He's the most uninspiring coach in Superleague in my opinion.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 4:12 pm  

with some of these injuries the news on their progress doesn't come out now until much later in the week after the medial/physio team have a chance to work on them and see how they react. its more clear cut with breaks, pulls and tears but dead legs, strains etc vary in recovery time, plus some can be managed better than others

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 4:14 pm  

We need to win the next two because that run of three away games at Wire / Cas / Giants looks very tricky, though based on recent form we shouldn't fear anyone.

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 4:16 pm  

barham red wrote:

The biggest thing in your favour will be the fact that saints look shot, by far the worst team this weekend. Cunningham seems massively under pressure.

funny team, they seem to lose badly one week then win unspectacularly the week after, then lose again. if you ask their fans they would probably tell you that they haven't won with a great performance all season. they seem to win a lot of dull games. bewareshadows or magic superbeetle usually come on before a game to give us an update on how things are going over there

Re: St Helens : Mon May 23, 2016 5:44 pm  

With 22pts on the board, we've achieved the first objective of the season (i.e. to qualify for the top . For me, the race to qualify for the top 4 starts in earnest this weekend.

Based on last year, 38pts will be required for a play-off spot which means 8 more victories from the remaining 15 games. As various people have already pointed out, a win on Saturday will see us open up a 6pt gap on Saints, a healthy but not insurmountable cushion.

The games will increase in pressure from here onwards, especially if we remain top of the pile (being top always brings an added pressure because you are there to be shot at). Saturday sees the start of the second half of 2016 with the ball in our court. We can go a long way towards controlling our destiny with victory, but Saints are never more dangerous when wounded and despite their erratic form so far this year, there is still a good deal of quality in the side.

A win at weekend will put us in the driving seat heading towards the split, a loss sees the top five bunch up once more with everything to play for over the coming four months.

Strap yourselves in everyone, fingers crossed it's going to be an exciting ride whatever the outcome.