Warrington beat Saints despite Harrison red card

Betfred Super League

St Helens (0) 10

Tries: Paasi, Royle Goals: Percival

Warrington (12) 24

Tries: Ashton, Dufty, Holroyd, Nicholson Goals: Ratchford (2), Drinkwater (2)

Warrington Wolves played for 60 minutes with 12 men but scored four tries to win at St Helens and remain second in the Super League table.

Matty Ashton gave them the lead with a try in the left corner before Matt Dufty scored their second.

Wire prop James Harrison was then sent off for a high tackle on Noah Stephens.

Saints responded after the break with tries from Agnatius Paasi and Sam Royle but two further tries from Adam Holroyd and Matty Nicholson won it for Warrington.

It was Wire's 13th win of the season, while Saints stay in fourth place after a fourth consecutive defeat.

They fell behind early as a long pass was floated wide from a tap penalty to send Ashton in the corner.

Dufty then broke the line and shimmed past Harry Robertson to go under the posts, with the conversion making it 12-0.

Matt Dufty (right) scored Warrington's second try

The home side rallied after Harrison's red and thought they had scored just before the break through Mark Percival but the try was ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.

After half-time they did reply as Wire went offside and Paasi powered over.

They then attacked against 11 men after Nicholson was sin-binned for obstruction, but Wire twice repelled full sets on their own line.

Saints eventually scored when Royle came off the bench to reduce the gap to two points with 12 minutes remaining.

But a high tackle from Matty Lees gave Warrington rare second-half territory and Ben Currie's offload gave Holroyd the chance to barge over and extend the lead.

Victory was then sealed in the closing moments as Nicholson gathered a grubber kick to score.

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens told BBC Radio Merseyside:

“When they go down to 12 and then 11 men, it’s a game we probably should have gone on and won.

“I thought our skills let us down today, too many errors, and too many poor decisions, especially when we had the numerical advantage.

“But I have to give huge credit to the opposition for the way they dug in with 12 men.”

Warrington head coach Sam Burgess told BBC Radio Merseyside:

“I’m really proud of the guys for their effort and commitment to each other.

“When we got the red card I thought it could be a tough night but our effort was unbelievable.

“We lost Stefan Ratchford to a nasty-looking face injury as well and the boys seemed to rally around that.”

St Helens: Robertson, Ritson, Vaughan, Percival, Blake, Welsby, Lomax, Paasi, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Bell, Mybe

Interchanges: Bennison, Dodd, Royle, Stephens, Dagnall,

Warrington: Dufty, Lindop, Tai, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Harrison, Powell, Vaughan, Nicholson, Holroyd, Currie

Interchanges: Musgrove, Yates, Walker, Whitehead, Wood

Sent off: Harrison

Sin-bin: Nicholson

Referee: Chris Kendall.