The unwanted records St Helens broke in damaging Warrington Wolves defeat

St Helens have now lost four games in a row for the first time in over six years following a damaging 24-10 defeat at home to Warrington Wolves on Friday night, with the pressure continuing to pile on Red V chief Paul Wellens.

Saints were beaten by a Warrington side which played with a man fewer than them for 60 of the 80 minutes at the Totally Wicked Stadium in Round 18, with Wire forward James Harrison shown a red card midway through the first half.

The visitors, who also saw captain Stefan Ratchford fail a HIA on his 36th birthday, then saw Matty Nicholson sent to the sin-bin in the second half.

But Sam Burgess’ side led 12-0 at the break, and weathered a storm in the second half to hold in there at 12-6 to the good until Adam Holroyd and Nicholson got over for tries to seal the deal late on.

Boos rang around the TW Stadium come the final hooter, with Saints lacklustre in attack throughout, having 12 tackles inside Warrington’s last 20 metres at one point without scoring a point.

The unwanted records St Helens broke in damaging Warrington Wolves defeat

Friday night’s loss is the fourth in a row for Wellens’ men, who have now been beaten by Salford Red Devils (20-18), Castleford Tigers (8-6), Wigan Warriors (16-12) and Warrington.

That’s the first time any Saints team has lost four in a row since a run between June 2016 which – coincidentally – also involved a home defeat against Warrington.

Kieron Cunningham’s side – who would also go on to be beaten by the Wolves in the play-off semi-finals that year – lost out to Huddersfield Giants (48-20) at Magic Weekend, and went on to be defeated by Hull FC (32-24), the Wire (26-4) and Catalans Dragons (33-16) during that run.

By April the following year, Cunningham had been sacked by Saints.

Elsewhere tonight, Saints also set a new unwanted precedent by being ‘nilled’ come half-time for the first time this year.

Their first points on the night didn’t come until the 46th minute when Agnatius Paasi crashed over for a try.

Wellens referenced the supporters’ frustrations in his post-match interview with Sky Sports, acknowledging that some of the sentiments being echoed around at the moment are warranted.

They make the short trip to Leigh next weekend.