Paul Wellens responds to ‘under pressure’ talk as St Helens lose fifth in a row

St Helens boss Paul Wellens claims that he is “fine” with being under pressure after his side lost their fifth game in a row last night against Leigh Leopards with Adrian Lam’s side winning 46-4.

It marks the first time since 1986 that St Helens have lost five games in a row and the resounding nature of the defeat only serves to heighten the pressure on Wellens. Despite that, he’s claimed that’s not a concern of his amidst growing calls from fans for him to depart.

Speaking to Sky Sports immediately after the eight-try defeat, Wellens was asked about the pressure that he is under by commentator Stuart Pyke with the 44-year-old accepting that he is ‘fine’ with it.

“I’m fine with that. When I took the job, I knew that there were expectations and standards around this club and at this moment in time we’re not doing that.

“I came to the club as a 16-year-old boy playing in the academy and I’ve been here ever since so I’ve seen tough periods before and I know that if you stick together and work hard, given the personnel we’ve got in this group, I feel we’ll come out the other side.

“It’s very easy as a player or a coach to start pointing the finger but it doesn’t do anybody any good.”

How St Helens can turn their season around

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The five-game slide that St Helens are on is obviously demoralising but it’s also threatening to derail their season with the club now just two points inside the playoffs despite sitting in fourth place in Super League.

Victories for Salford and Catalans today would see each team leapfrog the Saints meaning that they could end the round sat in sixth and just two points clear of Leeds Rhinos. It’s been a steep decline considering Saints had been joint top at the start of this run of form.

Making matters worse, Wellens lost his star full-back Jack Welsby to a hamstring injury last night that could see him miss months as opposed to weeks with the club’s injury crisis continuing.

Speaking on his players and the performance, Wellens explained: “There’s a group in there hurting. They’re doing it tough. I’m not the type of person who goes in there ranting and raving and throwing water bottles around but we are disappointed and there are a number of areas where we need to be better.

“We allowed Leigh’s back field too much time and space to get the ball free and we then had to work doubly as hard to scramble back and chase back. We just asked ourselves to do far too much work defensively and as the game went on, it told.”