SAINTS now have it all to do after throwing away a golden opportunity to nail down fourth spot and a home tie in the play-offs following their mid second half lapse which handed an unlikely victory to the visitors.

After dominating the game for the best part of an hour, Saints failed to take the steps that could have killed off a Leeds side playing for nothing, given they are already secure in top spot.

But holding onto a lead of 18-6, Saints failed to add to their score - when maybe even a drop goal would have done the trick, psychologically.

After twice failing to end their sets with anything more significant than a feeble punt over the dead ball line, Saints simply looked like a team desperately clinging onto the ropes waiting for the final bell.

Sensing they were ripe for taking, Leeds woke up and all of a sudden their big, pacy forwards began tearing holes in a tired Saints defence in the middle of the park. Two tries in three minutes, the first polished off by Richie Mathers after a fine break by Matt Adamson and a second a jammy one from Keith Senior, levelled matters.

Opposing skippers Kevin Sinfield and Paul Sculthorpe exchanged drop goals - and the game looked to be heading for a draw which would have kept Saints ahead of Wigan in the table.

But with three minutes remaining Sinfield managed to break free through some weak midfield tackling to send supporting hooker Matt Diskin racing over for the gut-wrenching match-winning try.

After watching the victory slip from his men's grasp, coach Ian Millward was disappointed with the way the result got away from his men in the last quarter.

He said: "I didn't think we deserved to lose. A draw would probably have been a fair result.

"We threatened a lot and didn't finish off. I thought defensively we aimed up but we should have scored more points from the opportunities we created."

The night started ominously for Saints when Leeds' bulky centre Chev Walker bustled his way through some slap-dash tackling to fall over the line after only four minutes.

Then Saints stepped up a gear, with the highly impressive Jon Wilkin, back after a two-week injury lay-off, showing good reactions to touch down a slippy ball after Sculthorpe's cross kick had bamboozled the Leeds defence.

Sculthorpe missed the conversion, but equalised with a penalty after Leeds scrum-half Andrew Dunemann was despatched to the sin-bin for holding down Wilkin in the tackle when Saints were looking dangerous.

Saints cashed in their numerical superiority when Mark Edmondson took Keiron Cunningham's short ball to crash over on the half hour mark.

Then Ade Gardner bombed a glorious opportunity to stretch the lead when he dropped Lee Gilmour's pass on the left flank just before the break. The young wingman's

confidence appears to be at an all time low, especially when each mistake he makes appears to be magnified by some sections.

However, Saints went in with their tails up after Wilkin, superbly slipped out of a tackle, shuffling sideways before launching a high punt which was smartly collected and touched down by Paul Wellens.

After the restart Saints continued to pile on the pressure with Darren Albert, Chris Joynt and Samoan wing Gray Viane all going close.

Those near misses and failure to come away with anything, ultimately took their toll - although as Saints' failure to use the spark substitute James Roby may have provided baffled many.

If Saints are to get to the Grand Final this term, it looks like they will have to do it all on their travels - at Wigan and Hull, and then Bradford or Leeds before they even get to Old Trafford. Still, they have won one knockout competition this year by beating all of the above, so don't write them off yet!