Bulls reclaim lost points

Twenty-four hours after having two points docked in the boardroom for a breach of the 2006 salary cap, Steve McNamara's men made their point on the field with a battling display against the leaders.

Coming close on the heels of their superb win at Leeds, McNamara was left to reflect on the fact that his side would now be joint top but for the club's financial indiscretions, saying: "There's nothing we can do about it. The group of players running around this year are inside the salary cap and are working their socks off and getting punished for something not of their doing."

He added: "The two points we won are not a bonus, they're a by-product of turning up and deciding to play and being a little bit more mentally switched on than we were last week (at Wigan). It's fantastic that we've managed to do that.

"With the run of fixtures we had, when you go Leeds, Wigan and Saints, you are always a bit concerned about what you're going to get. To pick two out of three up, we're reasonably happy."

The result means Saints have lost back-to-back matches for the second time this year and meet arch rivals Wigan on Friday in danger of suffering a rare hat-trick of defeats.

St Helens played the final quarter of last night's match with 12 men following the dismissal of Great Britain back row forward Jon Wilkin for a high tackle on Matt James but coach Daniel Anderson was even more incensed over the decision to disallow two second-half tries.

Video official Ben Thaler ruled out a Francis Meli touchdown, instead awarding Saints a scrum, and match referee Phil Bentham decided winger Ade Gardner failed to ground the ball after collecting Matty Smith's high kick.

"I think we put in an absolutely fantastic effort in the second half and deserved to win the game through two tries that weren't given," blasted Anderson.

"I'm tired of inept officiating. Because we're top of the comp, I reckon we get refereed more harshly than any other team. Granted, the opposition were very good too. I thought they handled the conditions very well and they didn't make many errors but I'm filthy at the inconsistencies every week."