Saints 39 Sheffield Eagles 30

COACH Ellery Hanley has apologised to the fans for this lacklustre performance!

The man who has steered Saints to the top of Super League and a six-game100 per cent record said: "Our display was very disappointing and the only positive thing for us was another two points."

And few Knowsley Road stalwarts would disagree with him because, Saints slumped to an untidy show littered with errors.

On the evidence of Sunday, Sheffield are a far better side than the squad thrashed 50-nil in the corresponding clash last season.

After trailing 22-6 with 35 minutes gone the Eagles rallied in rousing fashion.

Overall it was a penalty-punctuated 80 minutes dominated by too much whistle, as a tally of seven goals each to respective marksmen Sean Long and Mark Aston confirms, and from a Saints' point of view the team will be glad to have got this game out of their systems.

Having established that Saints were out-of-sorts, the unbeaten sequence was nonethless maintained as Sheffield were denied a second win at Knowsley Road, and there were several outstanding contributions, notably from man-of-the-match Paul Atcheson, Apollo Perelini, Sonny Nickle and Keiron Cunningham.

Eagles served notice that they meant business in exerting most of the opening pressure, but Saints took the lead via a Long penalty for ball stealing, only for Sheffield to hit back when busy hooker Johnny Lawless set up position for Daio Powell to stretch over for Aston to convert.

Time was ripe for two glorious breaks by Atcheson, with the first being finished off by Kevin Iro and the second by Paul Wellens to which Long tacked on the goal to allow Saints a 12-6 advantage with 20 minutes on the clock, and when Cunningham wriggled over and then 'made' a try for Nickle there was talk of another 50-pointer.

Not so thought the resilient Eagles, as they roared back with a pre-interval 14-point purple patch via tries from Bright Sodje (after a 60-yard link-up with Keith Senior) while Powell laid on the pass for Jeff Hardy to cross and, with Aston converting both and adding a penalty, the issue was in the melting pot with Saints leading 22-20.

Long (twice) and Aston traded penalties on the restart before Anthony Stewart beat two men to touch down for Saints, while Freddie Tuilaga rescued the home side with a tremendous tackle as Dave Watson headed for the pavilion posts, and it was yet again goals from Long and Aston that broke the tedium to leave Saints 32-24 to the good on 65 minutes.

A fine solo try from Perelini gave Saints further breathing space, as did a snap drop goal by Wellens, but the Eagles swooped again in the closing stages with a 60-yard individual effort by forward Darren Turner, which Aston goaled.

Saints: Atcheson; Tuilagi, Iro, Stewart, Sullivan; Martyn, Long; O'Neill, Cunningham, Nickle, Joynt, Perelini, Sculthorpe. Substitutes Wellens for Martyn (16), Smith for O'Neill (25), Matautia for Perelini (29), Perelini for Nickle (55), O'Neill for Matautia (63), Jonkers for Tuilagi (73).

Sheffield Eagles: Watson; Lovell, Powell, Senior, Sodje; Hardy, Aston; Laughton, Lawless, Shaw, Baldwin, Turner, Doyle. Substitutes Pearson for Doyle (55), Jackson for Shaw (51), Sovatabua for Laughton (56), Anderson for Baldwin (61), Laughton for Sovatabua (66), Shaw for Laughton (74).

Referee: Karle Kirkpatrick.

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