Kristian Woolf: Having the fans back was outstanding

Saints opened the doors of the Totally Wicked Stadium for the first time in more than 14 months and initially tested the patience of their 4,000 socially-distanced season-ticket holders before the break before giving them plenty to cheer with four second half tries.

REPORT: St Helens 28-0 Salford: Saints maintain their perfect start

Woolf will hope to see his side improve on their slow starts to matches, but there is nothing wrong with their defence as they produced their second clean sheet of the season to maintain their lead at the top of the table with a sixth win from as many games.

Woolf said: “Having the fans back was outstanding. Hearing the reception when the players ran out for their warm-up and seeing all the smiles on their faces made the hairs stand up on your back.

“Also the terraces singing the songs, it was outstanding to have that back – to actually hear it and feel it reminds us of how much we missed it.

“It was great seeing people walk across the bridge and into the ground and it was great that we could put a good performance on for them.”

Saints led only 6-0 at the break, courtesy of Alex Walmsley’s solo try, but gradually wore down their opponents and ran in further tries through Theo Fages, Kevin Naiqama, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Regan Grace.

Woolf added: “I thought we defended terrifically. We made it hard for them to get out of their end and, when we had to scramble, we did a really good job.

“When we put our sets together, we attacked really well, but we lost a bit of momentum when we had chances to put them under pressure.

“It was a great try after half-time from Theo that put us on the front foot for the second half.”