WOLVES boss Tony Smith was critical of his side’s performance despite a 20-18 win over Catalans Dragons this evening.

A late penalty from Kurt Gidley allowed The Wire to snatch the two points and leapfrog their opponents in the Super League table.

The result puts Wolves third on the ladder, but Smith was much more concerned about his side’s showing at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

“"There may be some players who will be happy looking at the table tonight but I'm not,” he said.

“I've been much happier with defeats, we're not happy about our performance tonight.

“We were way off in game management, we allowed Catalans to play to their tempo, they slowed it down and we allowed them to do that.

“We need to be able to manage when teams play slow on us and learn how to quicken it up.

“There was a lack of physical control, we've been up against it and it brings about a lack of intensity, we were dictating the pace of games but now we’re letting it happen to us.”

Ryan Atkins, Kevin Penny and Brad Dwyer crossed for Wolves in a topsy-turvy game, with Julian Bousquet and Fouad Yaha scoring tries for the French side.

Wolves now take a break from league action as they face local rivals Widnes in the Challenge Cup quarter finals next week, and Smith wants a big improvement from his side.

He also confirmed several players who were missing tonight are in contention for a return to the side and that prop Jordan Cox would be OK to play after he came off looking in considerable pain holding his wrist.

“We need to get a good performance going this week as we're up against our local rivals, we need to show a whole lot more than we did tonight,” he said.

“It may look good on the points table but it won't put any fear in Widnes.

“George King had a break tonight, he was showing signs of weariness.

“Tommy Lineham, Gene Ormsby and Toby King are all in the mix for next week.”