St Helens relieved after win takes them second

May 26 2008

ST HELENS coach Daniel Anderson admitted that his side had been in a battle after their 16- 8 win at the KC Stadium moved them back above Catalans Dragons into second place in the table.

He said: “They showed a good attitude – we made a lot of breaks but we must have got stopped on the last tackle or near the line on 10 occasions. That showed their commitment.

“We were disjointed in attack but defensively we were awesome.

“It was a tough game. We had to make a lot of tackles on our line and we made a lot of errors.”

Anderson revealed winger Ade Gardner had missed the game after burning his hand on his car radiator but should be fit to face Hull KR in the Challenge Cup last week.

Mike Bennett could be doubtful, however, after suffering a shoulder injury while Hull playmaker Shaun Berrigan missed most of the game with a similar problem and will be assessed.

Caretaker coach Richard Agar played down his prospects of taking over at Hull permanently despite an encouraging performance in defeat.

The beleaguered Airlie Birds, struggling in 11th in the engage Super League, rallied after the departure of coach Peter Sharp last week to force Saints to dig deep.

Saints withstood a barrage of pressure in the second half before eventually earning enough breathing space with a Leon Pryce try just after the hour.

Agar, Sharp’s former assistant, is thought to have until the end of the season to press his claims for the job full-time but he insists he has been set no specific goals.

He said: “I don’t know if I am on trial – I have not been given any targets or trial periods.

“I will have talks and I have my own thoughts on the way forward.

“I would like to think they would listen and support me but I was insisting that we got this game out of the way first.

“It has been a different week, the way it has unravelled. We lost a couple of days preparation.

“I would rather have had the two points but we asked for a response and I think we got one.”

Saints opened up a 10-0 lead with tries from Jon Wilkin and Ste Tyrer but Hull kept themselves in the game with a Kirk Yeaman effort.

Another Hull try as the hosts dominated in the third quarter would not have been undeserved but Saints held firm and eventually inched home.

Hull at least finished with a flourish with Gareth Raynor scoring a scintillating consolation in the last minute.

Agar added: “The most pleasing thing was in the last two or three minutes. We held Saints for two or three sets and then had the energy to score.”