Saints 18 Wigan Warriors 24 A STORY of missed opportunity, costly indiscipline, lack of rub-of-the-green, and a magnificent clinching try by ex-Saint Gary Connolly!

It added up to Saints' first home defeat for 14 months as reborn Wigan now coached by Andy Goodway gave notice that their play-off challenge is in earnest, after 80 minutes of knife-edge - if not flawless - rugby, when the result could have gone either way

The most crucial incidents came as the game entered its last quarter when, with Saints' leading 18-14, captain Chris Joynt had a try disallowed and Paul Davidson - who had a good game overall - was sin-binned, with Wigan taking full advantage to regain the lead against12 men.

But, as Ellery Hanley pointed out, Wigan took their chances and Saints' didn't - it was as simple as that.

Disappointing though the result was Saints could not be accused of lack of effort, and although man-of-the-match awards are a contentious issue, non-stop Freddie Tuilagi was the John Smith choice while Tommy Martyn - who might have had a hat-trick - was the Airtec selection.

A balmy summer night and perfect pitch greeted the teams, and the Warriors quickly exploited both sun and wind advantage with a succession of towering bombs.

Paul Atcheson and Tony Stewart stood firm under the barrage, as did Tommy Martyn with a crunching tackle on Denis Betts but, given Wigan's territitorial advantage, it came as no surprise when Greg Florimo, Tony Smith and Neil Cowie broke through to send Kris Radlinski under the pavilion posts. Phil Jones converted before Martyn lost the ball in the act of scoring, and when Joynt fouled Connolly Saints found themselves 8-0 down with 25 minutes on the clock and it was vitally important the homesters got back into contention.

And Saints did just that when, after Paul Newlove had brilliantly kept the ball 'alive' in a tackle, Martyn chipped through to score beneath the uprights for Sean Long to add the goal, and Tommy then sent Newlove powering between the posts for another six-pointer.

But a 14-12 half-time initiative went Wigan's way when Connolly's incisive run ended in Jason Robinson touching down in the scoreboard corner with Jones tacking on a towering conversion, to leave the outcome still very much in the melting pot. It was even more so on the resumption when Betts stole possession from tireless Apollo Perelini, as Long squaring matters with the penalty kick before Betts (on Chris Smith) and Long (on Robinson) both halted dangerous breakaways.

Saints took a second-time lead when the outstanding Cunningham ploughed through to earn the approval of the video referee, but the reply was negative when Joynt chased his kick-through, with the screen showing that the touchdown was on the dead-ball line.

Referee Presley then brandished the yellow card to Davidson for obstruction on Smith with Jones landing the penalty, and it was the busy Wigan scrum-half who found a gap to put Simon Haughton over to restore the Warriors lead at 20-18 with 65 minutes gone.

Sheer cut-and-thrust remained the norm as the closing drama unfolded, with the thoroughbred Connolly accelerating between Davidson and Perelini and racing 30 yards to score, leaving shell-shocked Saints to reflect on a chapter of unforced errors.

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