Saints 32 Bradford Bulls 22

Report by Denis Whittle

PICTURED: CUP-WINNING act! Joynt, Newlove and Sullivan hold the cup aloft while Hammond plays a 'supporting role,

SUPERB Saints made yet another piece of history with this magnificent centenary Silk Cut Challenge Cup triumph in the white-hot cauldron of Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

For, in their first-ever second successive final appearance, a team performance of truly epic proportions - particularly in the second half - against the stampeding unbeaten Bulls returned the trophy from whence it came - Knowsley Road!

It also effectively silenced the sceptics who believed that a revamped Bradford side enjoying pronounced physical advantage, and smarting for revenge after last season's 40-32 reverse, would prove all too much for Saints.

The Cup holder's action-replay heroics, which were the fruits of a game plan of minute preparation and strategic planning had, however, a subtle variation on the theme of 1996 in the vital area of tactical kicking.

Then Saints' skipper Bobbie Goulding's aerial bombardment of Bradford full-back Nathan Graham led to the rescuing of an apparently lost cause, but on this occasion low-flying missiles were the order of the day from Bobbie and his half-back predator Tommy Martyn, with the nett result being a similar three converted tries. A two-try, herculean attacking and defensive display by Martyn earned him a landslide majority in the ballot to decide the Lance Todd Trophy winner, and must have finally laid to rest ill-founded speculation regarding the stand-off berth at Knowsley Road.

Despite his brilliance Tommy might have been cursing his luck from a purely mercenary angle, for another try would have earned him a cool £10,000 from sponsors Silk Cut

From a Saints standpoint there were also virtuouso performances from ringmaster Goulding, who laced his personal contribution with six goals from seven attempts; Steve Prescott, who came within feet of scoring one of Wembley's most spectacular tries, and 'Mr Graft' Chris Joynt, while I thought young Andy Haigh acquitted well after being drafted in at the 11th hour for the ham-strung Alan Hunte.

However, given the eyeball-to-eyeball intensity of such a confrontation, controversy often reigned, particularly in marginal try-line rulings, and the 'video referee for Wembley' lobby certainly gathered enough fodder on Saturday, with the hair-line decisions foisted on referee Cummings and his other officials arousing considerable comment from the capacity 78,022 crowd

Temperatures hovering around the 80s greeted the teams, and a Saints' side defending the tunnel end quickly enjoyed a narrow escape when Stuart Spruce was adjudged to have lost the ball after chasing Steve McNamara's 'bomb', and missed chances were to cost Bradford dearly as the Knowsley Road team struggled to find early cohesion.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, as Saints' at last earned a footing on the Bradford line, with Goulding's slide-rule chip-through on the fourth tackle being seized upon by Martyn with eight minutes on the clock, only for Bobbie to hit the upright with the wide-angled conversion attempt.

But the enraged Bulls' response was immediate, as McNamara's shrewd pass sent Nickle powering through, and he fed Danny Peacock, who escaped the clutches of Prescott to touch down and square matters but McNamara was off target with the goal kick.

Prescott distinguished himself in defusing a series of steepling bombs from McNamara plus a try-saving tackle on the the dangerous Paul as Bradford - with Dwyer working like a trojan - sought to establish a lead which, on balance of play they merited and it arrived when Loughlin intercepted Karle Hammond's pass for McNamara to tack on the extra points. Matters were all square again with half-an-hour gone when, remarkably, the Bulls fell for the three-card trick again as Goulding and Martyn re-enacted their party piece for the Saints' leader to reach his 1,000th point for the club with the conversion, while a likely-looking raid by Keiron Cunningham, Haigh and Danny Arnold almost put Saints in the driving seat once more.

However, a Knowsley Road squad now rid of previous over-anxiety were given a tremendous psychological fillip on the stroke of half-time, when Hammond atoned for his earlier gaffe as, by dint of sheer refusal to submit, he took no fewer than five would-be tacklers over the line to touch down, with Goulding's second bulls-eye allowing Saints a 16-10 lead the the break.

Goulding landed a penalty for ball-stealing and, with 48 minutes gone Martyn's astute inside pass saw Joynt thunder through the tackles of Brian McDermott and Spruce to touch down, but Tommy intervened again as his perfectly weighted chip-through put Sullivan over, with the referee consulting both touch-judge and in-goal official before allowing the score to stand.

Two further conversions and penalty for interference by Goulding meant Saints had an apparent stranglehold in leading 30-10 as this classic entered its final quarter, but Bradford had other ideas and hit back when Glen Tomlinson followed up James Lowe's kick to touch down with McNamara adding the goal.

Argument raged once more when lively Saints' substitute Chris Morley raced under the posts after snapping up a loose ball dropped by Ekoku, only for the try to be disallowed because Martyn's tackle on the Bull's winger was ruled to be of the 'spear' variety, with Tommy being placed on report.

But the true grit Saints had shown throughout was then put to the test again when Goulding's men absorbed fully three sets of six tackles, with Bobbie's late penalty rounding of his side's repeat success beneath the Twin Towers, while Bradford could console themselves with a last-gasp try from Lowes.

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