Set of six; Wembley, harsh calls, kicking, Coote and another big game loss

We will go through the whys and wherefores of what went wrong - but you can understand why the fans fear a repetition of last year and some now dread the play-offs.

It is not all over yet, we just have to be careful we don't talk that into becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But you can understand the fears. We thought being head and shoulders above the rest, week to week, but then freezing on the big day had been done with last year.

It has been said for as long while that Saints have to win a really big knockout game to put this mental failing to bed - clearly a laboured win over Halifax in the semi did not do the trick.

There are two ways of looking at it - either convince ourselves that failure is inevitable and fall into a cycle of gloom and doom.

Or use it to put fire in the bellies ahead of the Super League semi-finals. They have the circle the wagons, dig in and have belief in their own abilities. We may have heard that before - but that is the only way of looking forward.

2. First off, nobody likes moaning about refs but there were some key issues for me.

First, let's deal with the Morgan Knowles try. It was a definite try and it was an awful decision not to check it.

Every week we see the video over used for run of the mill games, yet here on the big stage we have a major fail. It is so hard to fathom why Mr Hicks did not check it.

To say it was early on and so it did not matter as it was still nil-nil are totally missing the point.

If the score stands, they are off the mark and the pressure is off them and on Warrington. Of course it mattered, not simply for the extra six points it would have been next to their name.

That - followed by the wrong call to give Warrington a repeat set ahead of their first try - made it a12-point handicap. Crucial in any game, but especially in a final.

If you throw in the failure to police the offside rule, which stifled Saints attack, then you can understand why they felt aggrieved.

3. When the heat is as intense as it was on Saturday, one thing you have to do is conserve energy. Keeping hold of the ball, completing sets, is pretty basic. But Saints put a lot of ball down - that meant a lot more tackling, a lot more energy drained and then more errors to follow.

And then it became a cycle - with Saints making even more errors as they chased the game.

Saints may have been the fitter team - but just like the Catalans semi last year - if you have to do extra work, the heat is unforgiving.

4. Lachlan Coote - playing his first game is six weeks - has probably copped more flak than most for the game. He dropped the bomb that led to the second try, and then fluffed a relatively simple conversion to Theo Fages try- which at that time in the game was as bad as conceding another try.

He had started the game well, fielding an awkward kick off, then scooping a dangerous grubber and coming up with some early kicks in attack - but spilling that high ball killed him.

Coach Justin Holbrook said Coote was 100 per cent fit, but clearly lack of match fitness and maybe timing had an impact.

When you are justifiably placed on a pedestal for brilliance all year, those errors will be magnified.

5. Warrington came with a very simple game plan, and due to the above errors, Saints accommodated them.

But there were serious failings in parts of Saints' own gameplan.

Although they showed that they could make inroads in the Warrington defence - and at times cut Warrington open, only to be foiled by the scramble. It was near to the line where Saints fell badly short.

With conditions like that repeat sets would have been invaluable, but where were the grubbers to force drop outs? Or the smart kicks that genuinely threaten the line. Way too many times Saints opted to power play on the last - a fine tactic if you are winning, but not if you need to score. It is hard to fathom that this was actually the plan. But once again fatigue does play a part in the choices you make with the ball.

Former coach Royce Simmons once tried to prove this point by telling me to "run up and down the stairs 10 times and then sit down and start typing and see what rubbish comes out."

6. Maybe the last point is a combination of the above; but the brains trust of Coote, Lomax and Fages has made them tick all year and put them to the top of the table by some margin, but it needs to start ticking over again after a bit of a disjointed period team selection wise.

Coote's injury could not have been helped and in an ideal world he would have had a game before Wembley.

The chemistry between those players, off the back of what the pack has been doing, has worked all year. They need to go back to that. They have not suddenly become a bad team - but they need to find the mental toughness to get over this bitter disappointment to deliver the goods.

It can be done; in 2002 highly fancied Saints lost the cup final to Wigan at Murrayfield - but dug in to take the Super League in that epic night at Old Trafford.