St Helens outclassed arch-rivals Wigan Warriors to win 22-4 and open up a two-point gap at the top of the Betfred Super League.
Saints fell behind to a 20th-minute try against the run of play from Wigan full-back Jai Field, but responded with four of their own through Tom Makinson, Jonny Lomax, Joe Batchelor and Mark Percival.
Makinson was successful with one conversion and also kicked two penalties in front of a sell-out crowd of 17,980 at the Totally Wicked Stadium as Saints cruised to a ninth win in the last 10 derbies.
Wigan opened the scoring through Field, who profited from a neat inside pass by Thomas Leuluai to cross for his 13th try of the season.
Saints drew level four minutes later when Konrad Hurrell worked Makinson over at the corner and stand-off Lomax went over for their second try soon after.
Makinson added the extras and also kicked a penalty on the stroke of half-time to make it 12-4.
Wigan’s hopes suffered a body blow when Leuluai hobbled off and they disappeared altogether when Batchelor accepted Percival’s offload to force his way over for the reigning champions’ third try in the 48th minutes.
Makinson was off target with the conversion attempt but landed a penalty shortly afterwards to put his side three scores in front.
The Warriors were temporarily reduced to 12 men in the 56th minutes when hooker Sam Powell was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on winger Jon Bennison and they conceded a fourth try in his absence when Percival profited from Lewis Dodd's high kick.
St Helens: Jack Welsby; Tommy Makinson, Konrad Hurrell, Mark Percival, Jon Bennison; Jonny Lomax, Lewis Dodd; Alex Walmsley, James Roby, Matthew Lees; Joe Batchelor, James Bell; Morgan Knowles.
Interchanges: Joey Lussick, Louie McCarthy- Scarsbrook, Agnatius Pa'asi, Jake Wingfield,
Wigan Warriors: Jai Field; Abbas Miski, John Bateman, Jake Bibby, Bevan French; Cade Cust, Thomas Leuluai; Brad Singleton, Sam Powell, Liam Byrne; Willie Isa, Liam Farrell; Morgan Smithies.
Interchanges: Patrick Mago, Oliver Partington, Ethan Havard, Joe Shorrocks.
Our League Player of the Match: Tommy Makinson (St Helens).
