WOLVES first team coach Richard Agar says the players know their performance will need to improve again in tonight’s crunch clash with Wigan.

The Wire go into the game on the back of a mighty 48-16 win over Widnes last week to bounce back from consecutive defeats to Huddersfield and St Helens.

Agar hailed the performance at Widnes but says the level needs to rise again for the visit of Shaun Wane’s men.

“The Huddersfield game was a poor performance. We offered nothing in attack, there was no shape or energy and it was a very low key performance from us,” he said.

“We went back to how we know we can be, right attitude, right energy and working for each other on both sides of the ball.

“We scored some terrific tries and we only missed a handful of tackles defensively.

“As an all-round performance, it was good to get back to that but we know we are going to have to step up again this week.”

In the continued absence of scrum-half Chris Sandow, the half-back partnership of Stefan Ratchford and Kurt Gidley is set for another outing this evening after they shone against the Vikings last time out.

Agar says expecting Ratchford to have the same impact as Sandow instantly was “unrealistic” but is pleased the new partnership seems to be showing signs of blossoming.

“Of course you’re going to miss someone who has scored or assisted in 50% of our tries like Chris Sandow has,” he said.

“Stefan didn’t really have a pre-season training in the halves because of injury, his combination with Kurt came about over Easter when we didn’t have an awful lot of training time.

“Realistically speaking, to expect a combination to take off in the way Kurt and Chris’s did was a bit unrealistic.

“Both those guys were carrying niggles and strains that were really hampering so it took a bit of time but I thought they gave as dominant a display as half-backs can give on Friday, both individually and as a pairing.”