Warrington Wolves head coach on Challenge Cup exit

The Wire produced an error-strewn display and were deservedly beaten by a Warriors side that belied the disadvantage of having Kaide Ellis sent off after just seven minutes.

Here is everything the Wire boss said post-match...

Q: Talk us through your feelings after that one if you can…

DP: At half time, I’m thinking “what have we done to ourselves?”

It was absolutely crazy and we made complete carnage for ourselves. We had eight errors in the first half and four play-the-balls inside Wigan’s 20 – good luck with that.

We play the ball without looking, we’re dropping the ball consistently trying to chase an 8-0 scoreline against a 12-man team which didn’t really make any sense.

We tried to calm the boys down at half time because it was 8-0 – there’s nothing in it having had our worst half of football.

We made two errors straight away in the second half – it’s nonsensical what we were trying to do to play our way out of the game but through all that carnage, we’re a forward pass away from winning the game.

It’s a really poor performance and it’s so disappointing that we weren’t able to capitalise on a pretty big opportunity.

We didn’t and we have to move on pretty quickly because we’re back again on Friday. We only have one thing to shoot for now so we have to make sure we put it right moving forward and learn a fair few lessons from what we try and do to ourselves.

Wire players dejected at full time (Image: PA)

Q: Is it fair to say the only real saving grace from that first half is that it was only 8-0 at half time? And is it also fair to say you panicked when Wigan went down to 12?

DP: There is a pressure of sorts which is a bit of a myth – you don’t really need to worry about the 12 men.

There’s a way of playing that can open up a team like that. They worked exceptionally hard and kept us out on numerous occasions, but we just kept making errors – we had 14 in the game.

There was way too much of that to give us a chance but on your initial question, if Josh Thewlis isn’t on the field it’s probably more than 8-0.

I thought he was phenomenal today and was our best player by a decent distance. Everything he did was international class.

Josh Thewlis made several key defensive interventions in the first half (Image: SWPix.com)

Q: Playing against 12 men, people talk of draining their tank and building pressure before eventually reaping the rewards but you ended up draining your own tank with the errors…

DP: That’s exactly what we did – we drained our own tank.

We found a bit of energy towards the end – Dufty started playing, George was on the ball a lot and we started to create opportunities but we continued to not give ourselves a chance.

I think the pass was forward at the end so we don’t really have any complaints about that. I thought they were exceptional and we were pretty dumb.

It’s a performance you’d want to put in the bin very quickly and never do again.

The boys in there are talking about learning lessons but we’ve been going through this for a fair while in terms of our performances – we’re up and down.

The amount of errors we’re making at times is way too high and we need to sort it out quickly.

Ben Currie loses possession in the first half (Image: PA)

Q: You touched on it there but performances have been inconsistent for a while and as such, there are a lot of fans who are concerned about the direction this season is heading in.

Are they concerns you share?

DP: I asked the players if they thought we were good enough at the minute to win both comps, which takes some doing by the way.

We wanted to win this game today and it was a great opportunity, but we haven’t and we have to focus on the one comp we’ve got left.

That can’t be allowed to drift. We’ve got a short turnaround which we think is great for us because we can just crack on.

You have to find your way out of the dips sooner rather than later and Friday seems a good time to start for me.

We’ve lost an opportunity but we now have another one that we need to grab hold of.

I understand what they’re saying – if I’m watching that as a fan, I’m pretty disappointed. I understand the frustrations because clearly, it wasn’t good enough.

We worked hard and found a way towards the back end but it shouldn’t have come to that.

Q: Those fans will want to know what you’re doing about it as head coach – what can you tell them on that front?

DP: I can tell them that we’re working hard to fix it.

About four weeks ago, we were talking about our starts to games not being great and before today, we had been starting games well.

We’re working hard on fixing things but we’re dropping the ball cold and force passes because our composure isn’t good enough.

In the minds of us all, those decision-making things have got to change.

Q: Do you think the red card affected you more than it affected Wigan?

DP: 100 per cent – you saw it a little bit yesterday with Hull’s sending-off, but our errors are just dumb and cold.

There’s decision-making errors that would point to a mindset of “they’ve got 12 men, let’s get after them.”

If you complete high, put the ball in corners and bash them defensively, you get the ball back on halfway. That’s pressure and it ultimately tells, on 12 men or 13.

We never really got to grips with that until the back end of the game. We didn’t handle it well, put it that way.