THE morning after a Challenge Cup exit the day before is always a tough day of reflection, waking up to that sinking feeling that the road up Wembley Way has been ended for yet another year.

But the manner of Saints’ comprehensive 31-8 home defeat by Warrington will have left those involved at every level of the club spending a sleepless night and faced with a large amount of soul searching.

It was a very un-Saints like display with Sam Burgess’ Warrington holding all the aces on the edges, where they had pace to burn, but also more worryingly the visitors displayed more invention in the halves and surprisingly more aggression and enthusiasm in the middle.

And that last point was key at the very start of the game, with Wire’s defence repeatedly hammering the Saints ball carriers back and making them kick on the back foot. It set a tone.

In contrast Warrington built momentum with the direct running, led by James Harrison and Joe Philbin, creating a platform to play and ask questions on the edges.

The warning signs came early on when Saints’ left edge was opened up and it needed a desperate hand from Waqa Blake to stop the score.

Two goal-line drop outs and two set restarts late and Warrington had a ninth minute lead using the same trick, with Josh Thewlis crossing in a worrying amount of space.

Saints slowly got themselves into the game, with the introduction of James Bell and Sione Mata’utia livening up the middle.

And they hit the front when Jonny Lomax’s kick sat up perfectly for Joe Batchelor to pat back for Konrad Hurrell to cross for a 25th minute score, with Jon Bennison adding the extras.

Saints had more opportunities before the half ended in what was their best period of the game, with Tommy Makinson crossing but the flick out from Hurrell was forward.

Then some fine attacking play from saw Blake release Jon Bennison, who raced down the left and then slid the kick inside for Lewis Dodd was covered by George Williams to deny the score.

Their failure to execute their chances here, in their rare period of ascendancy, would bite them as Wolves came off the ropes with a late penalty and drop goal giving the visitors a one-point half time lead.

The second half became quite chaotic, but completely unravelled from almost the moment Bennison had put Saints ahead with a 51st minute penalty.

They went from having another rare period to having the upper hand to completely self-destructing starting with a Lomax error from the kick off, taking the ball over the dead-ball line rather than let it go.

A wonder try from wing Matty Ashton gave Warrington a five-point lead and their tails were up with a pair of errors from Bennison in yardage put Saints back under the cosh.

Even though Lachlan Fitzgibbon was denied over the line, Warrington were soon back for more and after stretching the home defence on the left, Connor Wrench collected a perfect cross kick from Williams to turn that pressure into points.

Trailing 19-8 with 20 minutes remaining they went for a short kick off, which backfired and simply put themselves under pressure from which Ashton had a try chalked off.

The home errors continued to accrue, with pushed passes and offsides frittering away position and possession as they chased the game in the last quarter with the panic play epitomised by Welsby hoofing the ball out on the full.

A short drop out invited Warrington to attack again – which they took with Harrison taking route one with 12 minutes from time and Williams providing the coup de grace following a Matt Dufty break from deep to blow the score out even more.

An awful day all round where too many individual errors and collective panic was ruthlessly punished.

Not for the first time in the modern era Warrington have had Saints’ number in a do-or-die tussle with Wellens now getting a taste of what Keiron Cunningham, Justin Holbrook and Kristian Woolf have all tasted in modern era knockout comps.