WARRINGTON Wolves' former boss John Dorahy has talked of being 'painted into a corner' at Wilderspool.

But he insisted he elected to go and later added that maybe it was an 'extremely premature decision'.

The Australian admitted the pressure was mounting on him as defeat followed defeat at the start of the Super League campaign, which came on the back of a disappointing Challenge Cup exit.

And he said he was not surprised by the team's win over Wigan.

Dorahy revealed: "Saturday's training was absolutely faultless, spot on and it gave the players renewed confidence. Match day is all about the preparation.

"I know there was a problem with the defence but there was never a problem with scoring, we were always capable of that. In the 'points for' table in the league we are in third place.

"I congratulate the team on turning the corner. Some of the players have called in at my home and others have phoned and this shows how they felt about me.

"I expect them to go forward from now. The club is in a perfect position and it is up to the board to take them forward from here.

"As a coach you want to leave a club, when you leave, in a better position than when you arrive. That was why the timing was right for me.

"I have done that. The skill factor within the team is a lot better and on a professional side things such as the gym are a lot better.

"But you have to have complete faith from your chairman and board - and by accepting my resignation the complete faith was not there.

"This is in comparison to the Jim Quinn and Andy Goodway situation at Oldham. Andy Goodway handed in his resignation but chairman Quinn would not accept it saying that with the resources available and in the circumstances he was doing a good job.

"And then there was John Smith's interview on Sky Television before the London game. When Mike Stephenson asked him if my job was under threat the Warrington chief executive's comment was 'It was as safe as anyone's' and that's a poor answer for a chief executive.

"This comes on the back of last December me being offered and accepting an extension to my contract with three years to go. I asked for this to be kept quiet but at that point they were obviously happy with the way things were going. On the back of that we continued with our preparations for 1997.

"But then came the injuries when we lost three prop forwards in the friendly fixture with Salford.

"We have not had the prop strength we have needed and we lost some players who were brought in to build on our strength.

"We felt the inclusion of Dallas Mead plus the 100 per cent fitness of our first strike props Mark Hilton and Gary Chambers, plus the emergence of Salesi Finau, would alleviate the hassle.

"But it was compounded with the injuries. And I think the injuries have been the main thing that has led to my resignation.

"The corner stone of your team is your pack. When you lose your strike props, you struggle from then on.

"Look at last season at Sheffield. We lost both Gary Chambers and Mark Hilton through injury in that game and we struggled for the rest of the season after that.

"Because of the injuries, this season has not delivered what I expected.

"The fans demand success and I demand success but it has not been forthcoming this season and the buck stops with the coach.

"It was time for me to step aside. It was a difficult decision to make but I believe it was the right one and after a long chat with Peter Higham he agreed it was right for me to resign. Peter has been absolutely fair about it all."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.