SAINTS coach Paul Wellens defended his players after his side went down to a Warrington side that played the last hour with 12 men.
The Saints boss said he, as coach, takes responsibility for the result - the depleted side's fourth in a row.
Here is what Paul Wellens said in his post match press conference.
Q: What are your thoughts on that performance?
PW: It was disappointing. When they went down to 12 and then 11 and we had that numerical advantage, I thought it was a game that we probably should have gone on and won.
I thought our skill let us down today and we made too many errors – our decision making at times, particularly when we had the numerical advantage, was not quite where it needed to be to nail a few opportunities.
If we had done that it would have been a different result.
I have to give huge credit to the opposition for the way they dug in. When you go down to 12 men you have the option of digging deep or using it for an excuse. Obviously Warrington dug deep today.
Q: What did you need to do when they went down to 12 men?
PW: Probably to show a bit more patience and try not to over think things.
I'm very conscious at this moment of not being overly critical of the playing group. I am asking a lot of a small group of players and there's no doubt we are under pressure at the moment. Results are not going our way.
I think with that comes a little bit of anxiety and tension. And I think that showed up in that period where we had the numerical advantage - we were just forcing things a little bit and just trying too hard at times. That can hurt you and it hurt us today.
Q: The inevitable criticism is going to come from the fans, is that unfair?
PW: Unfair on the players. You can criticise me all you want – that is the role I am in and I accept responsibility.
I am asking a lot of a small group of players, like Matty Lees playing 80 minutes in the middle and that type of game in that type of heat doesn’t deserve criticism.
Neither does Agnatius Paasi, Daryl Clark, Curtis Sironen, James Bell, Moses Mbye – I can go though everybody.
The playing group are trying hard – they are getting a few things wrong but that is a by product of being under pressure.
As head coach I am not going to turn on the playing group - far from it. What those players need is my support – and they get that 100%.
We have just got to keep moving forward together.
I take responsibility for the result.
Q: How was the mood and what was the talk at half time?
PW: Relatively good. I thought we were unfortunate in the first half. Mark Percival’s try was chalked off and for the life of me I can’t see a Waqa Blake knock on.
We have to live with that and it is not the reason we lost the game.
The talk was pretty positive. 12-0 but could have been closer and we just needed to hold the ball a bit better and complete a few more sets but errors really cost us throughout the evening.
Q: Is the length of the injury list catching up with you now and having an impact?
PW: It does have an impact but I am loathe as a coach to use that as an excuse, because in all the games we have lost this [past four weeks if we had handled them a bit differently we could have been on the right side of the result.
So I again, I'm so proud of our young players because what I am asking of them is a lot more than what I anticipated doing at the start of the season.
Q: Are you asking a lot of Harry Robertson and Jonny Vaughan in replacing internationals?
PW: Well you're talking about individual opinions and some people will factor it in, some people won’t and I can’t control the thoughts of individuals.
What I will say is I'm really proud of every individual and of our young players. I'm really proud of Harry Robertson, who made a couple of errors but keeps going at the game.
My old coach Daniel Anderson used to say ‘with young players they have to get 20 games under their belts before you can really judge them.
I going to be patient with our young players like I was supported coming through the club. And I am sure our fans will as well because I am asking more of them than I anticipated at the start of the year.
Q: Are you still in the battle for the top 2, even though you are now adrift of Warrington and Wigan?
PW: When you're in a situation where you are reliant on other teams losing games I am not going to get caught up - an nor is the playing group - on speculating where we are going to finish on the league ladder.
Over the next two, three, four and five weeks we will have a number of players returning but just because they are returning won’t guarantee us results. Good players coming back and performing well will get us results – not just good players coming back.
None of us are sat there comfortable or happy that we're losing games - far from it – but we are doing it tough and it is important that we stick together. And I believe that we will grow stronger off the back of this difficult experience.
Q: Do you have anyone back for Leigh?
PW: Potentially Tommy Makinson, that would probably be the only returnee at this stage.
Q: Leigh is not an easy game?
PW: Definitely not – none of them are easy now with the way the season is and the week after we go to Hull FC, who are also a different team to the start of the year.
The challenges come thick and fast and I'm sat here disappointed as a coach at losing games but I have not lost any faith in the playing group.
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