WINTER came early for Saints as they fell at the first hurdle since the inception of the Super League play-off system seven seasons ago.

Defeat was made even harder to stomach with it being against their bitter rivals, who had looked distinctly off-colour during the opening stages, and only burst into life when Salford-bound substitute Luke Robinson entered the fray.

How Saints lost a game that they dominated for large swathes can be put down in part to plain bad luck and a failure to get the rub of the green with the referee's calls.

In particular, the video referee's decision to over-rule Ian Hardman's magnificent long range effort after spotting the faintest of touches for an accidental offside 80 metres downfield underlined Saints' evening of misfortune.

But ultimately Saints were the masters of their own downfall. Although they had a bountiful supply of possession in the opening half an hour, they only came up with three converted Sean Long penalties to show for it.

Most of those penalties were awarded after Saints had their shaky hosts on the rack - and that they did not have the confidence to go for the six pointers must have emboldened Wigan's spirit.

At that last penalty, given for holding down at the play the ball after a Saints' breakaway, Wigan can count themselves lucky that the yellow card did not appear for a professional foul.

Saints badly needed to get over that whitewash and approaching the 30 minute mark the impressive Micky Higham looked on his way to doing so as he went hurtling towards the try line, only for Wigan's Great Britain full back Kris Radlinski to overhaul him and dislodge the ball just yards short.

Whether it was a sign of frustration, but a minute later Paul Sculthorpe had a stab at a drop goal, which went wide.

Although Wigan had never really been in the game, substitute Robinson took a quick tap penalty close to the Saints line, cleverly using the referee's positioning to force his way through for a try with little the defence could do about it.

Three minutes later Haydock youngster Kevin Brown darted over for another try after a strong burst by the impressive Gaz Hock to give the Warriors an unlikely 12-6 lead.

It got worse for Saints and within two minutes of the restart Sean O'Loughlin brushed off Sculthorpe's poor challenge to send Andrew Farrell over for what proved to be the killer try.

There was still plenty of incident - and Sean Long was desperately unlucky to have his try on 50 minutes disallowed, again the video ref ruling that he had lost the ball before grounding it.

Saints, unfortunately, failed to come up with much in the way of attacking options and became very predictable on the last tackle, with the Long 'grubber and hope for the best' being the only tactic deployed.

Ade Gardner did, however, give the travelling army some hope with a late try after smart play by Saints' player of the year Paul Wellens.

Gardner had only just recovered his senses after taking a heavy challenge from Wigan hooker Terry Newton, which knocked him into the middle of next week.

Newton, disciplinary chiefs later deemed, had no case to answer after the tape was viewed.

Consistency on high tackles is the most frustrating aspects of rugby league at times - for had former Saints prop Sonny Nickle committed a tackle like that, he would have probably had his boots stuffed with newspaper for six months.

Still, that was not the reason Saints lost this one. If they go into next season believing they just need a slight tweak of their system of flat attack and quick play the balls, they will not trouble any of the top sides next term.

Most sides seemed to have rumbled that ploy, and Saints desperately need to find a creative half back to give themselves more attacking options.

And while we are on the subject of recruitment, Saints could do with a bit more devil in the pack to fight fire with fire when needs be. In short, it may be two years on, but it is high time they replaced Tommy Martyn and Sonny Nickle!

Match stats:

Wigan: Radlinski; Dallas, Brown, Wild, Aspinwall; Orr, Lam; Farrell, Newton, C. Smith, Hock, Tickle, O'Loughlin; Subs: Robinson, Connolly, D. Sculthorpe, O'Connor

Saints: Wellens; Roby, Albert, Talau, Hardman; Hooper, Long; Fozzard, Higham, Cunningham, Gilmour, Joynt, Sculthorpe. Subs: Gardner, Mason, Edmondson, Wilkin.

Ref: RA Smith. HT: Wigan 12-6 Saints.

Pens: 6-8

Att: 20,052