Wigan find reserves to sink Saints

Wigan 22 St Helens 8

Wigan gave themselves a renewed chance of finishing in the top two in Super League with three second-half tries to end Saints' 10-match winning run.

A patched up Wigan side with a number of key men missing had their work cut out to eat into the five-point gap between the two sides last night. But, in a nervous opening quarter littered with penalties and handling mistakes, it was Wigan who had the better of play territorially – but they missed their best chance of scoring points when Julian O'Neill failed with a kickable penalty awarded for one of the numerous offences in the tackle.

However, O'Neill did better when Saints' captain, Chris Joint, was penalised again, this time putting his shot over from straight in front.

Referee Russell Smith finally and understandably lost patience with the deliberate laying on in the tackle and sin-binned the St Helens' forward, Peter Shields, after 27 minutes. His side coped well enough in his absence, although Jamie Ainscough thought he had scored the try the game desperately needed when he kicked down the left wing. Unbeknown to him, however, the whistle had gone.

On the stroke of half-time, Wigan's Mick Cassidy became the second man to visit the sin-bin, and Paul Sculthorpe brought as undistinguished a 40 minutes as these two sides can have produced for many a long year to a merciful close with a long-range equalising penalty.

Despite that, a Wigan team with a new spring in its stride claimed the game's first try five minutes after the break. Dave Hodgson did much to create it by winging ahead intelligently and Ainscough won the race to slide over the line and touchdown, with O'Neill adding the goal.

Adrian Lam, expected to sign a new contract by the end of the week, then produced a double moment of magic, putting in a 40/20 kick and then jinking through to score from the subsequent possession.

O'Neill added the conversion and a penalty before his clever pass sent David Furner over for the third Wigan try.

There was still time for Wigan's old nemesis, Tommy Martyn, to score a typical intersection try, but this was not to be one of those nights when Saints snatched victory from defeat.

Having lost to Wigan in the Challenge Cup final, they will feel now that they have to change the pattern when they meet in the play-offs.

Wigan: Connolly, Briscoe, Aspinwall, Hodgson, Ainscough, O'Neill, Lam, O'Connor, Newton, C Smith, Wild, Cassidy, Furner. Substitutes: Bibey, Tickle, Howard, M Smith.

St Helens: Wellens, Stewart, Gleeson, Newlove, Albert, Sculthorpe, Long, Britt, Cunningham, Nickle, Joynt, Stankevitch, Shiels. Substitutes: Ward, Martyn, Higham, Bennett.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).

* The game's governing body, the Rugby League Council, is today expected to approve the return of York and the elevation of the London Skolars to the professional ranks of the Northern Ford Premiership for next season. York went out of business in March, but have regrouped under new ownership. Bramley, however, have had their application rejected.