Cunningham pleased with character-building result

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham has described last night’s derby win over Widnes as character-building.

Saints kept the Vikings to just two tries and close the game out thanks to a Mark Percival penalty.

“Both sides probably deserved something out that,” Cunningham said.

It’s all charatcer building for the side going into the right time of the season. I thought we were good across the park.

“Widnes were really good today. They moved the ball a lot.

“To keep them to 10 points is quite pleasing.”

Cunningham said the victory wasn’t pretty but was important. Saints are now just two points below fourth-placed Catalans.

“It’s good to be involved in games like that,” he admitted.

“We fought hard, it wasn’t a pretty game for us. They can’t be all be pretty.

“Sometimes the ugly ones are the ones that count at the end of the year. The boys should be proud of their efforts.”