WARRINGTON Wolves boss Darryl Van de Velde was disappointed with his side's suicidal tendancy in the crunch game with St. Helens on Sunday.

He was livid with the team's 'gross lack of discipline' and pointed to this as well as poor tackling as the main reasons for the Wolves' defeat.

Van de Velde said: "We didn't have any ball in the second half. We gave penalties away on the fifth and six tackles which is disgraceful and showed a gross lack of discipline."

And he added sarcastically, having a snipe at referee John Connolly's handling of the game: "Then again, you have to give Saints big credit for excellent discipline because they didn't give away a penalty for holding down for the whole 80 minutes. It's a very good football team that can do that!"

The Australian continued: "We missed too many one-on-one tackles.

"And we probably didn't believe in ourselves. We were down 12-0 and it is always a battle then but we hung in for half-time and early in the second half Danny Farrar could have scored which would have made it 12-6 and we would have been back in the game.

"But in the next six tackles Saints went down the other end and scored and at 18-0 it was all over.

"Defeat was especially gauling with fifth spot rivals Gateshead losing at the weekend but we can't control that. We can only control ourselves and obviously against St. Helens we did not do ourselves justice.

"I have to give credit to St. Helens. They came to Wilderspool with a purpose, played well and got the two points.

"It has made life very difficult for us to finish in fifth place but it is still mathematically possible.

"Now we have to worry about other teams beating other teams. This defeat has taken it out of our hands.

"But there is still an opportunity for us. We still have Gateshead and Castleford games at home but we have to be focused on beating Halifax first."

Wolves half back Lee Briers, who could remember little of the game after picking up an injury and playing on auto pilot, added: "It was very disappointing but we've got to look to the next game.

"We've got to win all of our remaining four games to try and get into the play-offs.

"It's going to be a long shot but hopefully we'll get there."

Saints boss Ellery Hanley was sympathetic to Warrington as very few teams have played a midweek game this year and then gone on to win at the weekend.

He said: "It is a very hard and gruelling task. You have to give your heart out to Warrington to some degree because it is hard to play three games in eight days.

"Obviously, this is going to be adjusted for next season accordingly but it's one of those things and all teams have to do it through the course of the season.

"I thought for a large proportion of the game on Sunday St. Helens played very well.

"Our defence was locked on and we were very hungry."

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