Ardent Wire fan Rob Watson gives his view on Saturday's 24-16 win over Catalans Dragons.

AFTER that heart-breaking loss to Wigan, Wire took to the field again with two of the most basic human instincts to play for, pride and survival.

Once again, they conceded the first try of the game, when they could not withstand the first set of six tackles that Catalans had near their line as the French side squeezed over in the corner for a 4-0 lead.

Wire did not look too dispirited by the setback though and stuck to their task. It wasn’t long before Wire hit the front when Jullien went over from close range after a neat handling move to the left.

Soon after that, Atkins dove over from acting half-back after Penny had done well to contest a high kick and win possession back and Wire had a six-point lead.

Just when we thought they might actually get control of a game, a blast from Wire’s past came back to haunt them as Richie Myler jinked his way over under the posts and the scores were level.

It is possibly a sign of Wire’s anxiety and lack of full belief in their attack that they take the option of kicking a penalty goal more often than they did in the days of their free flowing best a few years ago. One such penalty did edge them ahead by two points by the end of the first half.

The most promising sign from this match was that Wire were making breaks, probably more than in the previous five matches combined.

One break resulted in the next Wire try, when they took advantage of a retreating and fractured Catalans defence as Gidley floated a kick out wide and Atkins ran onto it, plucked it out of the air and touched down all in one motion.

Another penalty goal from Gidley stretched the lead to eight points but that never looked like being enough to be a decisive or comfortable margin.

Of course, Catalans scored again to get within two points and make for a nervy finish and of course it was Myler who scored.

Going into the last ten minutes, this now became a match that Wire could easily lose. Instead, they held firm and when Will Dagger made a brilliant break from within his own half, which was the highlight of a good performance by the young full back. Catalans were scrambling and out of position once again.

It was Andre Savelio who took advantage of the disjointed defence this time, dragging at least two of them over the line with him as he plonked the ball down under the posts with a couple of minutes or so left to clinch the much-needed win.

With plenty of players missing this was an impressive result, despite still not playing anything like as well as they would like, it’s definitely a situation where ugly wins are better than beautiful losses.

To be fair, this performance wasn’t all ugly, there was more creativity in attack and more people in motion when Wire had the ball and as previous mentioned there were a few breaks, particularly evasive were Dagger and Daryl Clark when he came off the bench.

This is very much a baby step in the right direction. To get into the top eight, Wire probably need to win their last five games of the regular seasons, but you can’t win five in a row unless you win the first one.