St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham admits it is hard to be critical of his team following their recent string of impressive performances, but delivered a scathing verdict of their performance in the 25-24 defeat to Castleford.
Cunningham was critical of the Saints’ second half performance in particular, and admitted that he felt the Saints “did their best” to lose the match from the very first minute of the match.
“We didn’t deserve to win it, we got what we deserved. If we had won, would have been a terrible injustice to Castleford. We’ve just got to improve,” he said.
“The game probably went away from us when we pulled a shirt on before we took the field. We did our best to lose that game from minute one.
“It’s hard to be critical because they’ve been phenomenal over the last few weeks but you’ve got to be good every week in this competition.”
He added: “I thought both sides had a hangover from big games last week. We were awful in the first half and Castleford were just as bad.
“In the second half Castleford decided to have a bit more want and a bit more vigour about them.
“I think mentally the boys came with a soft attitude.”
