WARRINGTON Wolves never felt they were going to lose in the play-offs to Widnes Vikings despite being 18-0 down, according to boss Tony Smith.

Smith’s side trailed by three converted tries before Joel Monaghan reduced the deficit heading into the interval.

But Smith insists his side always believed they had it in them to turn the game around at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

“At no stage did we feel the game we ever going to be lost, even at 18-0,” he said. “We knew once we got hold of the ball, put some plays on and make them do some work that we felt we could score enough tries.

“I’m really happy with the way my team performed second half, they should be proud of themselves. First half we didn’t build a game – too many soft mistakes and soft errors in positions that gave Widnes a great advantage.

“They took their advantage and did it well, they did some really smart stuff first half. Two tries in a similar manner they obviously had it planned.

“The second time was probably more error, that ball should have been pressed by Rhys Evans in the corner.”

The performance was a reversal of the loss at Wigan last week, where Wolves led at the break before the Warriors mounted a comeback.

And Smith is now looking for an 80-minute performance from his side at Castleford on Thursday.

“Our defence actually improved when we applied some pressure with the ball,” he added. “Second half we got momentum right from the onset and built a game like we would have liked to in the first half.

“Once we did that it was really hard for Widnes to stop the momentum of our play. When we do that, when we put 80 minutes together, we might give someone a scare rather than ourselves.

“Last week it was first half great second half not so good, this week it was first half not so great and second half pretty good – it’ll be 80 minutes hopefully against Cas.”