Preview: St Helens v Warrington (Round 14)

St Helens face a searching examination of their title credentials when they take on one of the competition?s form teams on Friday.

Saints, fresh from losing their 100% record, meet local rivals Warrington, who have won six of their last seven matches.

Daniel Anderson is expecting his St Helens side to bounce back from their shock 19-16 defeat at Huddersfield, especially with Sean Long, Jamie Lyon, Jason Cayless and Lee Gilmour back in the line-up.

?I don?t think any of us were happy with the way we lost,? he said. ?We were beaten by a better and more enthusiastic team.

?The traits that have been infectious in our team for the first three months just disappeared and we?re looking to rectify that on Friday.

?They?re bang in form but I?d like to think that playing at home will lift our spirits a little bit and force us to have a good look at ourselves. Sometimes a loss does that.

?A touch of adversity gives you an opportunity to look in the mirror and compare what you did at the start of the year to what you are doing now and see if you?ve dropped off a little bit.

?We just weren?t there mentally but we?re going in there primed and wound up to win the game.?

Warrington have won just one of 25 Super League Merseyside derbies and that solitary 56-22 home success was five years ago.

Since then St Helens have remained unbeaten in 13 meetings, including two draws, and they have won the last seven matches, most recently by 18-10 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in March.

Prop forward Paul Wood, one of just three survivors from the Wolves? single derby success, admits that the Giants have done his side few favours with their surprise victory.

?It?s going to be a tough game, especially with them getting beaten by Huddersfield,? he said.

?That makes it doubly hard because they will be fired up coming off a defeat.

?It?s going to be a physical battle up front, that?s where it?s going to be won or lost. They always try to get us down the middle so we?ll be prepared for that.

?We?re happy with where we are at. We?re on a crest of a wave but we?ve just got to keep putting in good performances.?

St Helens v Warrington Wolves, Knowsley Road, Friday May 12 2006

St Helens 18-man squad: Wellens, Gardner, Lyon, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Wilkin, Sculthorpe, Roby, Hooper, P. Anderson, V. Anderson, Graham.

Warrington 18-man squad: Grose, Fa?afili, M. Gleeson, Reardon, Briers, Sullivan, Leikvoll, Hilton, Swann, Wainwright, Noone, M. Gleeson, Westwood, Wood, Lima, Barnett, Rauhihi, Bracek.

Referee: R Silverwood