Westbrook given Hull chance by injury to Paea
kick from Lomax. Coote failed with his conversion and the visitors entered the break with a slender 16-12 lead.
The opening exchanges of the second period were littered with unforced errors from both sides, stifling any attacking.
The visitors extended their lead to six points with a Coote penalty.
St Helens then increased the gap as an inch-perfect kick was retrieved by McGilllvary but St Helens pressure meant the winger lost possession in-goal and Percival scored his second of the game.
For the next 10 minutes, Giants were largely in control as the ball rarely left the away side’s half, however, the game looked like slipping away from them, especially after Matty English and Suaia Matagi limped off with injuries.
The gap between the two sides started to show as Akuila Uate dropped a booming kick from Saints and, from the resulting set, Grace scored his first of the evening, evading tackles on the left to put St Helens 16 points ahead.
The evening was compounded when McIntosh’s kick-off sailed straight out of play to hand any momentum Giants had left straight back to their opposition.
Once again, the league leaders showed their class, this time through Dominique Peyroux who latched on to a knock down by Tommy Makinson to take his side above 30 points as Coote, once again, added the extras.
Lomax, ever the provider, then got himself a deserved try after 72 minutes and the action concluded with Saints picking up their sixth victory of the season.
Giants will be concerned about the amount of points they conceded in the second half as they were regularly put to the sword by the away side’s creative players.
Joe Wardle went off with concussion in the first half while Matty English suffered a leg injury on the hour. WIGAN coach Adrian Lam insists there is no panic as the reigning Super League champions look to arrest a four-matching losing run against arch rivals Warrington tonight.
Lam revealed the club held clearthe-air talks after last week’s home defeat by Huddersfield Giants and is hoping it will help get their title defence back on track in the Grand Final rematch.
“We had a good sit-down between the staff and the players and made sure it was clear that it’s not panic stations yet,” Lam said.
“We feel at different times in different matches we’re doing some really good stuff, we just need to put that together collectively as a group over 80 minutes.
“The week’s preparation has been outstanding, the players have bought into what we want to change.”
Lam has already used 25 players in six matches - Jake Shorrocks could become the 26th - partly due to injuries but also in an effort to discover the winning formula.
“We haven’t had that stability or cohesion and there’s a few more changes this week,” he said.
“But the key for us turning it around is our senior players, who haven’t been performing at their absolute best, but they’re aware of that responsibility.”
Warrington have banged the drum in the build-up by highlighting the bad blood between the rivals and look set to be rewarded with a 13,000plus crowd at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
“We all have a duty to grow the game and get more people watching our great game,” said Wolves coach Steve Price, who says he is still hurting from October’s Old Trafford defeat.
“It still doesn’t sit well with me. It doesn’t seem that long ago but this is a totally different team and it’s going to be a totally different game.
“Form goes out of the window in local derbies. They’re going to be desperate. They’ve still got a lot of good-quality footballers who have played at the highest level.” HULL coach Lee Radford makes one enforced change to the side that beat Leeds for tonight’s home clash with Wakefield, calling up prop Danny Westbrook for the first time this season in place of Mickey Paea, who is out with a rib injury.
Wakefield have second rower Matty Ashurst back from injury, taking over from James Batchelor, while prop Anthony England is set to replace Keegan Hirst and there is also a place in Chris Chester’s 19-man squad for Jordan Crowther.
Meanwhile, Wakefield are set to push ahead with plans to redevelop Belle Vue after being given a £3.15m loan to buy back the freehold.
Trinity sought to revamp their current ground, currently known as the Mobile Rocket Stadium, after proposals for a new stadium failed to materialise and a £12m refurbishment plan was unveiled in 2017.
The club’s hopes of finally making Belle Vue fit for purpose received a major boost on
Wednesday when Wakefield Council agreed in principle to provide them with a loan of £3.15m to buy the stadium freehold and surrounding areas.
Leeds veteran back rowers Carl Ablett and Jamie JonesBuchanan are set to make their first appearances of the season at home to London Broncos while teenage prop Tom Holroyd has been called up in place of Brad Singleton.
London have skipper Jay Pitts, Kieran Dixon, Ryan Morgan, Nathan Mason, Greg Richards and James Cunningham all back from injury as coach Danny Ward prepares to return to his old club.