Coming into the original derby match, Wigan Warriors were entertaining a Saints side who have won their last seven, and who knew that a win tonight would lift them above their old enemy into the all important fourth spot.

A win for the Warriors would send them four points clear of the Saints and come close to sealing their own top-four finish and a place in the play-offs.

Saints were still fuming over the suspensions of Luke Walsh and Luke Thompson but Wigan had their own problems and came into the Game without skipper Sean O'Loughlin and Dom Manfredi.

It was a sensational start for the Warriors when Anthony Gelling took a Sam Tomkins pass, bumped off the Saints tacklers, and stretched for the line to score by the corner flag with just three minutes on the clock. Matty Smith converted from the touchline.

The two teams spent the next thirty minutes probing and prodding but the defences held firm. Both sides had several chances but it took until the half hour mark before the next score when Gelling took a short pass from John Bateman to go through a gap in the Saints defence and round behind the sticks. Smith added the extras for 12-0.

There was some clumsiness from both sides leading up to the interval and it continues when the two sides returned to the field. On fifty James Roby was held up over the line under the Wigan sticks but Saints couldn't capitalise.

As the half wore on, Saints stepped up the pace but it was Wigan who took the opportunity of field position when Matty Smith slotted over a drop goal from twenty metres out for 13-0 as the game passed the hour mark.

Gelling got his hat-trick, and put the outcome of the game beyond any doubt, when he intercepted a wayward pass on his own ten metre and went ninety to score, improving the angle. But Smith failed to add his third conversion of the night, leaving Saints needing three converted tries.

Smith added a seventy-first minute penalty for 19-0 to lift Wigan above the Warrington Wolves and into second spot and give Saints a nervous couple of weeks as they try to secure a top four finish.

With two minutes left George Williams slid over the line after twisting away from the Saints defence and scoring directly under the sticks gave Smith his easiest conversion of the night to complete a 25-0 home win.

This was not a game for the purists with both sides making far too many mistakes and surrendering possession far too easily. Wigan were the better team in attack, but ultimately it was their defence which won it for them, as they nilled Saints for the first time in Wigan for over sixty years.

Warriors: Tomkins, Charnley, Gelling (3T), Sarginson, Gildart, Williams (T), Smith (4G, DG), Crosby, Powell, Flower, Bateman, Farrell, Isa. Subs: Tautai, Sutton, Nuuausala, Shorrocks.

Saints: Lomax, Owens, Fleming, Peyroux, Swift, Turner, Fages, Richards, Roby, Walmsley, Knowles, Greenwood, Wilkin. Subs: Amor, Vea, Tasi, McCarthy-Scarsbrook.

Referee: Ben Thaler.

Attendance: