MISSED POINTS CRUCIAL! (From Warrington Guardian)

MISSED POINTS CRUCIAL!

WARRINGTON Wolves' unbeaten home record was stifled by Bradford Bulls and coach Darryl Van de Velde was obviously not happy about it.

The Wolves boss was pleased with Warrington's defence but said the team 'fell asleep' during a couple of Bradford kicks and did not take advantage of Lee Briers' fantastic '40-20' kicking in the first period.

He said: "I was really pleased with the defence. Two of Bradford's tries only came as a result of kicks and even when we were disjointed with Danny Farrar going off the players still hung in there.

"In the first half Bradford did not seem to break us at all. We weathered the storm and levelled it at 8-8 and I was reasonably confident going into the second half.

"They came up with a try just after half-time from another kick and we got back into it again from a kick but at the end of the day Bradford finished the strongest team.

"A problem was we got into Bradford's 22m area but did not make them pay as we came up with some poor options after putting them under a lot of pressure.

"There were two or three great '40-20' kicks in the first half and we should have come away with some points from those kicks but we didn't.

"We just went to sleep a couple of times from their kicks but otherwise defended very well."

Andy Leathem, on loan for a month from St. Helens, made his debut for Warrington as a substitute and Van de Velde was pleased with his effort.

He said: "He took the ball up strongly and did a fair bit of defence. He'd only had two training sessions with us and has not been playing first grade football either so he struggled a little with the pace of the game but he dug in and worked hard."

Van de Velde reaped praise on teenager John Duffy, who again covered for Australian stand off Scott Wilson, who who was missing his third game with a knee injury.

The Wolves coach said: "Duff is playing well. I thought he was exceptional in defence today."

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