Rugby League: Saints cling to title race by fingertips: Draw leaves Wigan in need of perfect end to season

Wigan. . . . .8

St Helens. . .8

A SCORELESS second half of almost unbearable tension left the Stones Bitter Championship still dependent upon the results of the last games of the season.

Wigan will retain their title if they beat Warrington on Monday and Castleford on Friday. If they slip up in either match, St Helens can take the honours by beating Widnes on Monday.

It will be a nerve-wracking finish, but no more so than the last 40 minutes at Central Park yesterday. Only a fingertip prevented the match becoming another one won for Wigan. Joe Lydon's drop goal in the 77th minute cleared the crossbar by inches but had been touched in flight by Saints' substitute Gus O'Donnell and did not count.

The former Wigan player, who came on for the last 10 minutes when Kevin Ward was carried off with a broken right leg, is no mean drop goal specialist himself, but his intervention yesterday could be more valuable than any of his own successes.

If Wigan came closer to winning a game played in front of a near 30,000 crowd - a record since two divisions were introduced 20 years ago - Saints had the more opportunities in a second half they dominated territorially.

They forced Wigan into numerous mistakes in their own 25, but could never quite capitalise. Ward, before the injury which, at 35, must threaten to end his career, got one pass away on the Wigan line that would surely have brought a try if there had been fewer Saints' hands snatching at it.

Shane Cooper was pushed back over the try line and a series of Saints players tried and failed with drop goals.

Wigan, with key players missing and several on the field obviously jaded, looked vulnerable from the start. They had the gift of a two-point lead when Saints conceded an early penalty, but they received a far more generous present themselves when Martin Dermott passed straight to Gary Connolly for a sixth-minute try.

Only three minutes later, George Mann and Cooper moved the ball cleverly and Tea Ropati picked out an unmarked Alan Hunte on the wing with a long pass. The try put St Helens 8-2 ahead.

Flawed discipline, rather than anything Wigan were doing, was the biggest threat to that lead. An offside decision while they were in possession allowed Frano Botica to narrow the gap with a penalty goal and Cooper sacrificed an attacking position soon after by kicking out at Dermott.

Wigan equalised before half-time, with much of the credit going to Andrew Farrell, a 17-year-old forward who enlivened them considerably when he came on as a substitute. His break down the middle stretched Saints and Mike Forshaw and Sam Panapa sent Martin Offiah in at the corner.

It was to be the last score of a gripping match but only the start of a drama that will run for another week.

Wigan: Hampson; Robinson, Lydon, Panapa, Offiah, Botica, Edwards; Cowie, Dermott, Gildart (Farrell, 27), Betts, Forshaw (Cassidy, 62), Clarke.

St Helens: Lyon; Hunte, Connolly, Loughlin, Sullivan, Ropati, Griffiths; Neill (Nickle, 29), Dwyer, Ward (O'Donnell, 70), Joynt, Mann, Cooper.

Referee: J Holdsworth (Kippax).