Saturday 23 July 2016 11:39, UK
Keiron Cunningham put St Helens' 23-4 win at Wigan down to the new-found self-belief running through the players.
Saints demonstrated superb defensive mettle on Friday night to end the regular season on a high with a fifth straight victory that keeps alive their semi-final hopes.
"I'm just pleased for my players, they stood up to everything Wigan threw at us," Cunningham said. "They could probably still be playing now and not score.
"That's what self-belief brings to a side. We went through a tough spell but we're a real close-knit group and now we're heading in the right direction."
It was 4-4 after half an hour but St Helens seized control with two tries in a seven-minute spell before half-time, first through Mark Percival then Morgan Knowles, before tackling Wigan out of the game in the second half.
"That's how big games are won," Cunningham added. "Wigan are a great attacking side and were fully stacked tonight. They had lots of threats but I thought we stuck to the plan.
"We weren't great with the ball and we didn't kick the ball well enough but playing against a top-two side, you don't get as much time as you do against other sides.
"I'm pleased we kept them to one try. We're not going to fall in love with ourselves, we give ourselves a good shot for the top four."
Wigan enjoyed an early lead through winger Lewis Tierney's try but missed a host of other chances as Saints scrambled well in defence before scoring the game's final try through hooker James Roby in the final minute.
Shaun Wane's men had hopes of going into the Super 8s in top spot but that privilege goes to Hull following their 28-20 win at Salford, and the Warriors could now finish the regular season in third place.
Wane conceded his team will need to improve markedly on their lacklustre performance in attack when they take on Hull in the Challenge Cup semi-finals next weekend.
"I'm gutted," said Wane. "Devastated. We didn't turn up and got what we deserved. The smartest team won.
"They were good on the floor and were allowed to be good. The referee was poor and we were poor with the ball. They were the best team and they defended their line really well.
"I thought we had some poor calls but they wanted it more. Our defence was very good for large parts of the game but our attack was off. Too many individual players had a poor game.
"We've got seven hard days of work ahead of us now. We need to make sure we turn up against Hull with the same commitment to defence but we've got to be better on attack."
