WARRINGTON Wolves played for more than an hour with 12-men but still managed to pull off a fine 22-10 victory away at St Helens.
James Harrison was shown a red card for making contact with the head of Noah Stephens in the first half, and Warrington also had to play for 10 minutes with 11 men after Matty Nicholson was sinbinned for a professional foul.
But a gutsy defensive display frustrated an out-of-form St Helens, who fell to their fourth successive defeat.
Two late tries held off a Saints fight back and mean Sam Burgess’ side open up a four point gap to the near neighbours in the table.
Handing a debut off the bench to Luke Yates, who made his planned move from Huddersfield six months earlier than anticipated last week, Warrington made a lightning start to the match.
Stefan Ratchford’s early penalty nudged them in front and then Matty Ashton found his way down the left flank to touch down.
It was down the left again that Saints were opened up on 14 minutes, when the blistering Matt Dufty ran through a channel on the left and weaved his way around young full-back Harry Robertson to fly over under the posts.
Their bubble was burst on the quarter mark though when Harrison was shown the red card by referee Chris Kendall, as his tackle attempt on Stephens saw his shoulder make contact with the Saints prop’s head, however unintentional now very much sternly punished by the new laws of the game.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Warrington maintained their 12-0 lead until half time, with Saints having tries for Mark Percival and Jack Welsby ruled out for a knock-on and forward pass respectively.
They did lose Ratchford through a failed head assessment at half time, and within six minutes of the restart, Saints had a foothold in the match as Agnatius Paasi powered his way over from close range.
Saints laid siege on the Warrington line but they stayed firm, although only a foul by Nicholson helped to prevent Stephens getting on the end of a Welsby kick, which resulted in him being sin-binned.
After surviving 10 minutes with a two-man disadvantage, Warrington conceded shortly after Nicholson’s return as Sam Royle got over, though crucially Mark Percival missed the conversion meaning the Wolves maintained a slender 12-10 advantage.
On a rare foray up the other end, Adam Holroyd slid over eight minutes from time and though Josh Drinkwater missed the conversion, Warrington had a six point lead.
And they sealed the victory when Williams burst through the middle and from the next tackle, a kick through was grounded in goal by Nicholson to build up nicely to a mouth-watering tie with Wigan next weekend.
St Helens: Robertson, Blake, Vaughan, Percival, Ritson, Welsby, Lomax, Lees, Clark, Paasi, Sironen, Bell, Mbye. Subs: Bennison, Dodd, Royle, Stephens.
Warrington: Dufty, Lindop, Tai, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Vaughan, Powell, Harrison, Holroyd, Nicholson, Currie. Subs: Whitehead, Walker, Musgrove, Yates.
