St Helens swept aside Warrington to claim top spot in the engage Super League for the third successive year.

Watched by Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, the reigning champions outscored their rivals across the M62 by seven tries to two in front of a bumper 11,746 crowd.

Kiwi wing Francis Meli claimed a hat-trick while Lee Gilmour, Ade Gardner, James Roby and Leon Pryce were also on the scoresheet against a Wolves side who had Great Britain forward Adrian Morley sent off in the 68th minute for a high tackle.

The result secures Saints the League leaders' shield ahead of nearest rivals Leeds but has done no favours for Warrington, whose play-off ambitions now hang by a thread after a third defeat in four outings.

Failure to finish in the top six would be nothing short of disastrous for Paul Cullen's men, who again recruited heavily in the winter but have typically failed to live up to expectations.

Perhaps the bitterest pill to swallow for Cullen and his players is that defeat at Knowsley Road came as no real surprise.

Warrington have not won at St Helens for 13 years and have lost on every visit there since pulling off a 21-11 victory in a Championship match in January 1994. In Super League encounters between the clubs, Saints have now won 28 and Warrington just one.

Such a pitiful record did not bode well for Cullen's men, but two penalties from skipper and Saints reject Lee Briers soon gave them a platform on which to build after Saints prop Nick Fozzard and Warrington counterpart Chris Leikvoll had been placed on report after clashing inside the opening two minutes.

The hosts soon lost Fozzard with an arm injury and lacked fluency without injured scrum-half Sean Long, but Gilmour barged his way over the line midway through the opening period.

Meli added a second in the left corner five minutes later and an excellent move down the right flank saw Pryce, Roby and Matt Gidley combine to send Gardner over shortly after the half hour mark.

Warrington's teenage sensation Kevin Penny notched his 13th try in 12 appearances but Meli hit back with his second to give Saints further breathing space.

Paul Wellens converted for his first goal from four attempts and after the break Roby wasted no time in extending Saints' advantage by touching down under the posts.

Meli was soon on hand to claim his hat-trick and Warrington lost Mark Gleeson through injury moments later.

But the Wolves roared back into contention on the hour when Gleeson's brother Martin weaved his way over to cut the gap to 12 points.

After Morley was dismissed, though, Wellens landed the resultant penalty and Pryce added a sixth try for Saints.

Wellens ended the night with four conversions as St Helens fans - and Benitez - headed home happy.