TONY Smith praised Warrington Wolves’ returning trio for their role in the win at Catalan Dragons.

Michael Monaghan, Simon Grix and Trent Waterhouse all featured for the first time in many weeks, with Monaghan enjoying a man-of-the-match performance.

And Smith was delighted with the effort from three of his more experienced players in Perpignan in difficult conditions.

“They were terrific,” he said. “They did some big stints all of them, Waterhouse was very good and Grixy did a great job, played some big game time.

“Michael Monaghan played 80 minutes and was out of this world, I thought he was probably the difference. He was outstanding and I can’t say enough about how Monas played.

“It was very tough for both teams so we’re delighted with the effort and the way that we handled those conditions considering Catalan didn’t throw the towel in by any menas “Fortunately we were able to step up to the challenge. It’s good to find a bit better form than the last couple of weeks, we had to find some toughness.

“We’ve been looking for it and working hard for it. We’ve been working hard for the last little while and caught up with us a little bit so was nice to find that energy and spark.”

Smith was also delighted by the reception his side got from the travelling Wolves fans.

“It was an outstanding following,” he added. “They were terrific and we had great support out here and we’re very grateful for all the support.

“We also had a few players who missed out who could have been here doing a good job for us as well, we rested a few players in order to get them over a few bumps and bruises they were carrying.

“It was a pretty special performance from a number of people and we’ve got some fresh bodies to come back next week so hopefully we can reward them with another good performance next Saturday.”

Ben Westwood sat out, along with Micky Higham, while Ryan Atkins and Matty Russell were injured against Wakefield last week.

Smith says Wolves will have to check on the fitness of Ben Currie, who picked up a strain on his knee.

“Matty Russell had to sit out but a few of them have been carrying knocks for a while so it was a chance to give them a break,” he explained.

“We’ll have to check on Ben Currie to see how he is, we think he’s got a bit of a strain on his knee so we’ll see how he fares and comes up in the next couple of days.”