A WARNING has been given to Warrington Wolves players by their coach.

Darryl Van de Velde was fuming with the way his side gave up in the second half at Sheffield Eagles.

And afterwards he said: "I am not going to play with players who quit. I don't want them in my team and I think people have lost sight of this fact.

"The players coming out of contract should realise everything is to play for.

"And the players who are in contract have got to compete also until the end of the season as they're not safe either.

"There's such a thing as a transfer list in this country. We can put people on the transfer list and they can be transferred out of this club even though they're under contract.

"The players have got to go away from this game and re-evaluate their own performances individually as there were not too many postives coming out of this game.

"One thing remains constant - 80 minutes of football - and the players have to go out there and compete for the full 80 minutes every week irrespective of the scoreboard.

"If the scoreboard is against you then that is something you've got to turn around and change the momentum. But you don't stop competing.

"I can not knock the young players like David Highton as they are having a go. But some of the other players are just coasting through it and just waiting for the season to finish."

David Highton and Will Cowell had previously played in Super League but for 17-year-old Phil Finney it was his debut in the crucial role of scrum half.

The Wolves boss took Widnes-based Finney off after only 32 minutes saying the step up in class had come too early for the No.7.

Van de Velde said: "Phil was just too small. Sheffield targeted him and our defenders around Phil didn't help him so when he was isolated they went through him a few times.

"But Phil's time will come. I have told him there is no drama from this game. It was premature to bring him through.

"The bottom line is I would like to bring the young players up in a team that is winning games and bring them off the bench for 20 minutes or so to give them a feel for the game.

"I don't really want to throw the likes of Phil into a team that is not playing well and is without confidence.

Van de Velde was disappointed with the performance on the whole but particularly so with the second half display.

He said: "After Sheffield kicked their second half field goal and it left us having to score two tries our players didn't compete and that was disappointing because we were still in the game.

"But we just continually turned over possession. Our completion rate was disgraceful. Young kids would not have made the sort of mistakes the players were making out there."

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