Today's Game

Tony Smith's post match comments below-

TONY Smith insists his Warrington Wolves side will ‘stick together’ as they bid to turnaround four successive losses in Super League.

Wolves’ 22-14 defeat to Castleford Tigers at The Halliwell Jones Stadium was a fourth on the bounce, their worst record since the beginning of the 2009 season.

Head of coaching and rugby Smith says confidence is low among some of his charges, but that the club will work hard to bounce back.

“It’s about us hanging in there, sticking together and working hard, turning things around,” he said. “We’re hurting a whole lot at the moment and I know our fans are as well.

“The support there was terrific, the amount of people that stay behind to encourage the players and let them know that their support is still there was enormous.

“We’re very grateful for that and one of the things about the Warrington people, since I’ve been here, is they’re right behind their team through thick and thin.

“We’re going through a little bit of thin time and it’s a good time for us to all stick together and we’ll come through this. We’ll repay them for their faith.

“We’ve got to work hard, that’s the only way to gain confidence. Keeping working hard and get our combinations going and we’ll come through.

“We’ll get on a roll and feel good about it. It does test you and test your resolve at times and the way you feel about yourself.

“Some of our players aren’t right on their game and some aren’t far off it but need a little bit more from their pals around them.

“We’re not just going to wait until that happens, it’s about hard work, training hard and keep doing the things we need to do better.

“We’re well aware of some of the areas that are letting us down and we’ve just got to rectify those and when it comes it will come really strongly.”

Wolves led 10-4 and were then level at 10-10 with 15 minutes remaining, but Smith believes an error-ridden game cost them the result.

“There were too many errors, particularly after half time,” he added. “I thought it was a big error just before half time that cost us when we were leading 10-4.

“I thought we were just starting to get on top and we made an error down our own end and then they scored a minute or so later.

“It was one too many sets for us to defend. Going into half time I thought we gifted them some points.

“In the second half there were way too many errors. We made a mistake on four or five of our first six sets, which really put us under pressure.

“We threw the ball into touch three times in the second half. Cas were here to complete today and give us no field possession or cheap ball.

“They were waiting and relying on us to come up with some cheap errors, and unfortunately we did.”

Smith took a positive from Wolves appearing to not pick up any further injuries, while Richie Myler returned to the side after a six-game absence.

“He tried hard but looked like a bloke who’s been out for five or six weeks as well,” said Smith. “We’re not quite gelling at the moment in terms of combinations right across the park.

“When Ben Currie gets that charge down, he’s out in the middle of nowhere and the ball bounces over his head.

“He’s a tall kid and the ball bounces back the other way, they score two plays later. It probably sums up where we’re at a little bit in terms of bounce of the ball and a bit of confidence.

“It was very draining out there, the weather, it’s the first really warm day and you could see it on both sets of teams at some stages.

“Both looked like they were on the verge of being broken open. When you hand the ball over at the half way line or pass it into touch on the first play, those are the things that can really hurt you in those hotter days.”