Justin Holbrook: Win at Wakefield was important

St Helens coach Justin Holbrook said he was glad to get the winning feeling back after defeating Wakefield.

The Saints eased past Trinity 36-16 in the second round of the Super 8s at the Mobile Rocket Stadium on Thursday night.

St Helens had previously lost two games on the spin against Catalans Dragons and Huddersfield Giants, but Holbrook was happy to return to winning ways.

He said: “Wakefield are a good side and they are hard to beat at home so to get the win was important.

“I knew Wakefield were going to be tough to beat because they always are at their place but our main goal was to get back playing to how we had been playing all year.

“There has been a lot of talk over us in the last couple of weeks, admittedly we played poorly in the semi-final, but outside of that we have been good and there are a lot of other teams who have lost a lot more games than us, but for some reason we had been getting talked about as though we were struggling which I found strange.

“I just care about us performing to the best of our ability and we hadn’t done that for a few weeks so it was good for us to win against a good side.”

Holbrook was full of praise for the Saints fans after the game.

He added: “It is a great atmosphere at Wakefield and our fans have been terrific all year, so I am really happy with the win.

“It was important that we played well against Wakefield so I am happy with the result and the fans were great.”

The win sees St Helens now needing just three points to clinch the League Leaders’ Shield.

Next up for Saints is a derby against local rivals Wigan Warriors at the Totally Wicked Stadium on Friday, August 31.