WARRINGTON Wolves’ mission did not change after Chris Hill’s red card in the Super League season opener at Wigan Warriors.

“I was still confident we could still win the game,” said head coach Steve Price.

“We’ve tweaked a few things in the off season.

“I’d like to think a couple of those things came to fruition.

“I was still confident with 12 men and when we went to 11 after losing Mike Cooper to the sin bin we were still in the fight with 10 seconds and we still gave ourselves an opportunity to level the game.

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“So we’ve got a football team there. I understand it’s early days and it’s a long season but we’ll take a lot of good stuff out of it.”

“I thought we showed a huge amount of spirit and courage for 80 minutes, after losing Chris early and then Mike against a very good football team.

“To keep them to 16 points and still give us a chance to level the scores at the death I’m super proud of all of them.

“I thought we stretched their D line at times throughout the game.

“And I thought we created a little bit more opportunities even when we were down to 12 and 11 men at times and still give ourselves a chance at the very end.

“It shows the attitude and belief we’ve got among the group. The boys have had a tremendous off-season and I’m sure every other club is saying the same, but I thought we looked fit and fast across the park tonight.

“That’s very pleasing and I still had an interchange up my sleeve. To do that, we’re in a good place in the first round.

“I hate losing, can’t stand it, however you can accept a loss after the circumstances especially the effort that was put in by all the players.”

A Ben Murdoch-Masila try had given The Wire an early lead, before responses from Bevan French and Sam Powell – the latter a penalty try having lost the ball in the act of scoring due to the high tackle that saw Hill dismissed in the 23rd minute.

Powell ended up being stretchered from the field.

“I’ll have to have another look at it but I thought Chris hit his arm and came up. Sam’s ok and has got no repercussions from the incident.”

Price was keen not to focus on the red and yellow cards, but he suggested Cooper’s trip on French looked worse when watched in slow motion by the officials.

“What they’ve got to understand is the slow motion. When they keep playing it in slow-mo, it looks a lot slower. You have to keep it in normal speed and make a decision off that,” he said.

“Chris Kendall’s a very good referee and so is the video referee (Ben Thaler).

“We got what we got. We’ve learned some valuable lessons and we’ll be better for it.”