Saints 38 Halifax Blue Sox 20 SAINTS finally put their dismal home form behind them just hours before stepping onto the plane for Australia.

Victory ended one of the club's worst home sequences in living memory. It was their first success at Knowsley Road since the rout of Warrington way back on April 20.

And although it was a much-needed confidence booster for the sterner tasks ahead Down Under, we shouldn't get too carried away.

Halifax have one of the poorest records in Super League at the moment and haven't won in nine outings.

And on Sunday, they rarely looked like challenging Saints once the Knowsley Roaders had gone ahead before their lowest crowd of the season through Anthony Sullivan's third-minute try.

For Saints it was a curate's egg of a performance.

With the ball in their hands they looked much more inventive than of late. They ran with much more vigour. And the return of skipper Bobbie Goulding heralded a superior kicking game.

And in hat-trick hero Anthony Sullivan, enjoying probably his best season at Knowsley Road, they had a worthy man-of-the-match award winner.

Chris Joynt, said by the Wigan papers to be on his way to Central Park, Horwich, or wherever Wigan will be playing next term, capped a hard-working stint with a try.

And other plusses included a fine opening 40 minutes from stand-off Sean Long, which included a superb individual try, an aggressive effort from Vila Matautia, enjoying his extended run in the starting line-up, and the continued good form of Alan Hunte.

On the down side, Saints produced the worst set of new hairdos since Kevin Keegan's perm. The style victims included Alan Hunte, Paul Anderson and Danny Arnold. It's to be hoped their team-mates hide the bleach bottle Down Under.

More seriously, Saints also showed a worrying lack of concentration. After doing most of the hard work in restricting Fax progress, they all-too-frequently went to sleep, allowing the visitors in for "soft" tries.

And their defence at the play-the-ball still leaves a lot to be desired. Too often, the two markers seem to be resting rather than working as the first line of defence.

This is failing the Aussies will undoubtedly cash in on.

This lack of concentration was graphically illustrated in the first 40 minutes.

Saints cruised into a 22-nil lead and appeared on the way to a big score. But two converted tries in the space of five minutes just before the interval brought Halifax back into the game.

A try by Hunte soon after the resumption should have settled Saints' nerves, but Halifax refused to give in.

But in the end the Knowsley Roaders had too much flair.

For the record Saints tries came from Sullivan (3), Hunte (2), Long, and Joynt. Goulding (4) and Long added goals

Fax tries came from Powell (2), Pearson and Rowley, with Pearson kicking two goals.

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