Keiron Cunningham and Paul Anderson offer contrasting views on St Helens win

Adam Quinlan celebrates with his St Helens team-mates after scoring a try against Huddersfield

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham admitted his side made it hard work for themselves as they defeated Huddersfield 35-34 at Langtree Park.

Cunningham was content to bank the two points which took Saints to within a point of Super League leaders Leeds, but felt they should not have need a late drop goal from scrum-half Luke Walsh to secure the victory.

"We had plenty of opportunities to win that game comfortably," said Cunningham. "You can't gift sides of Huddersfield's calibre that many chances.

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St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham questioned his side's defending

"It's disappointing but it's a win. The boys hung in. It was like cat and mouse but we got the points in the end and they're going to be quite valuable.

"But we need to have a look at our goal-line defence. We've got plenty of work to do this week."

Saints were without skipper Jon Wilkin through injury but Cunningham was encouraged by the leadership of Walsh, who was off balance when he slotted over the match-winning one-pointer.

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Adam Quinlan put in a man-of-the-match performance on his debut for St Helens

"He practices that in training, he always kicks from a long way out and to the side, so it was no fluke," Cunningham said.

"He's had a tough period with injury but tonight he really shone with ball in hand. That's going to be a good boost for him, it will give him that confidence he needs."

Huddersfield were never in front but they battled back five times to level the scores and Giants coach Paul Anderson offered a contrasting view to Cunningham.  

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Hudderfield Giants coach Paul Anderson refused to be drawn on contentious refereeing decisions in his side's narrow loss to St Helens.

"We should have been that far out in front, we had enough chances to win next week's game as well with the position and amount of possession we had," he said.

"We should have had a hat trick in the first 10 minutes and it could have been a similar situation to what happened to Saints last week. You've got to take those opportunities at this level.

"It's bitterly tough to take. The positive is we kept battling away and scored some nice tries. I think we did enough to win more than the one game.

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Paul Anderson showed his annoyance at a controversial refereeing decision and was forced to apologise!

"The boys are angry more than anything because they know they should have won the game. Some of the tries they scored were pretty soft."