Sheffield Eagles 14 Saints 12 SUFFERING Saints can be excused for thinking that the Don Valley Stadium is fast becoming their graveyard following this fourth successive defeat.

And, despite the narrow margin and a fortuitous late winner by the Eagles, Saints have only themselves to blame for - although scoring three tries to two - teamwork, flair and total commitment was conspicuously absent.

Both sides dropped the ball with carefree abandon in the wet conditions, and the match was often as dull as ditchwater as a consequence, but a Sheffield squad lacking nothing in steel deserved to prevail if only for sheer refusal to accept anything less.

Arguably the only bright spots for Saints against a side still reeling from a 50-point thrashing by Wigan were superb individual tries by Anthony Sullivan (the 200th of his career) and the outstanding Paul Newlove, but Sean Long had a barren night with three difficult kicks.

The visitor's first touchdown came after 13 minutes when Danny Arnold fed Alan Hunte, and he displayed soccer-like skills to dribble over in the corner, and the Eagles were almost grounded again when Vila Matautia and Karle Hammond were held on the line.

However there was no denying the flying 'Sully' who rocketed in from 60 yards at quarter-time, but with poor handling rather then defensive excellence the reason for the dearth of scoring, only a penalty goal by Sheffield's Aston broke the tedium to half-time. Leading by just 8-2 on the restart Saints' had no cause for complacency, and so it proved in the 45th minute when a concerted Eagles' raid saw Sovatabua race between the posts for Aston to convert.

Newlove then beat four men to score a glorious solo try, but Sheffield had the last say when, in the 70th minute, Aston's chip-through was dropped by Hammond for Taewa to score under the uprights, and with Aston's goal a formality, it was game, set and match.

So arguments still rage as to why a side that won the Challenge Cup two months ago seems to have become a bad team - certainly that was the question on the lips of the faithful who trekked to Sheffield.

Sheffield Eagles: Sovatabua: Pinkney, Senior, Taewa, Okiwe; Mycoe, Aston; Broadbent, Lawless, Edmed, Doyle, Carr, Wood. Substitutes Turner for Doyle (35), Wright for Edmed (52), Vassilakopolis for Wood (60), Edmed for Broadbent (62), Broadbent for Wright (72), Doyle for Turner (75).

Saints: Haigh; Arnold, Hunte, Newlove, Sullivan; Hammond, Long; Leathem, Cunningham, O'Neill, McVey, Matautia, Joynt. Substitutes Pickavance for Leathem (35), Morley for McVey (50), Anderson for Matautia (62), Hayes for Arnold (70).

Referee: Robert Connolly (Wigan).

Attendance: 3,200.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.