St Helens coach Daniel Anderson branded Catalans Dragons "terrible" and admitted his team were not much better after they secured a win that saw them leapfrog the French club into second place in the Super League.
Saints produced some enterprising rugby to race into a 16-0 lead inside 28 minutes thanks to tries from Chris Flannery, Keiron Cunningham and James Graham, but it took them another 36 minutes to score again.
Winger Ade Gardner missed two tryscorin
g chances, but eventually went over twice in eight minutes to take over as Super League's leading scorer with 15 tries and clinch a routine victory.
"It was ugly," admitted Anderson. "I think mediocre is overstating it. We were poor and they were terrible.
"We've been in some games that have been a great advertisement for rugby league, but that wasn't one of them.
"We trained fantastic this week and gave every indication that we were going to produce a crisp, energetic performance. Maybe the emotion of last week's Challenge Cup took a lot out of us.
"But we got the points and move into second so we get on with next week."
Great Britain second row Lee Gilmour is a doubt for next weekend's game at Hull after being helped off just before the end with an ankle injury.
This defeat ended the Dragons' club record eight-match unbeaten run in Super League.
A try from centre Adam Mogg early in the second half briefly gave the visitors hope of completing a league double, but that was snuffed out with the sin-binning of full-back Clint Greenshields for interference on 57 minutes.
"The sin-binning didn't help," said coach Mick Potter. "I thought we played okay football in patches.
"Going 16-0 down makes it a pretty tough ask against a team like that. When they get on a roll, they are tough to stop."
Potter will succeed Anderson at St Helens in 2009 - with former Australian Test hooker Kevin Walters expected to be unveiled as the next Catalans coach on Wednesday - but he insisted it was far from his thoughts.
"It didn't cross my mind," he said. "My focus for the 80 minutes was on getting Catalans to do their best and try to win the game.
"They've certainly got some quality personnel."
St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Cayless, Cunningham, Graham, Gilmour, Flannery, Wilkin. Substitutes: Roby, Bennett, Hargreaves, Clough.
Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Khattabi, Mogg, Wilson, Pelo, Bosc, McGuire, Chan, Gorrell, Ferriol, Raguin, Croker, Mounis. Substitutes: Guisset, Carlaw, Fakir, Casty.
Referee: P Bentham (Warrington).
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