WOLVES’ coaches and players would have got more out of Saturday’s second pre-season friendly than the supporters.

While the contest had its moments as a spectacle – especially the performance of new signing Bryson Goodwin - it is various aspects of The Wire’s play handing valuable intel to the camp that could prove to be the most important factor stemming from the clash with partner club Rochdale Hornets on the sandy Crown Oil Arena pitch.

That, along with more game time under the belts of players Price will be calling on in the opening round of Super League against champions Leeds Rhinos on Thursday, February 1.

Head coach Steve Price and his coaches not only got to see a fairly young Wolves side show improvements from the last outing against Widnes in areas they wanted to but also doing so under the pressure of having captain-for-the-day Jack Hughes and Ben Westwood spending time in the sin-bin, some of it concurrently.

The chiefs were able to gauge how the players stood up to the test of being outnumbered while operating under the new structures implemented by Price.

And that presented a challenge of mental toughness too, working hard for each other while under the pump and only 24 hours after a heavy final training session on a week-long camp in South Wales.

Much of the period a man short in the first half was spent under the cosh and one soft dummy-half score was conceded, but they fought back to take a first-half lead and never gave up points again versus well-organised, determined and enterprising opposition from Championship One.

At the start of the second half, although still down to 12 men Warrington were dominant and bombed a couple of scoring chances before George King’s effort from a Mitch Brown break opened up an eight-point gap that Wolves always looked capable of defending.

With all things considered, including 12 potential starters on the sidelines that featured three halfbacks, Wolves did okay.

Price highlighted ‘intent, our line speed, and at times our ruck control’ as improved areas.

The number of penalties conceded, specially in the opening 40 minutes, along with two yellow cards – including Westwood (dissent) for the second successive game – will have raised a few red flags for the coaches, as will the two tries conceded close to the ruck.

There were some timing and execution issues in attack, with a number of wayward passes and knock-ons making things look scruffy at times.

And, like at Widnes a fortnight earlier, they started a little slowly but shored things up eventually to give Price his first win as Wolves boss.

On the plus side, Jack Johnson looked the part at full-back - backing up reports of the strong pre-season he has had.

Young guns like Luis Johnson, Brad Pinder, Joe Pilling and Taylor Prell, who scored the final try, soaked up valuable experience alongside hardened pros like Daryl Clark, Hughes, Westwood and Goodwin.

And it was New Zealand international Goodwin who caught the eye.

He was a class above at times, proving to be a handful with his aggressive running every time he had the ball.

And he could have landed himself the goal-kicking role, too, after four successes from four attempts with a cultured left foot.

Of course, things are going to start to hot up as the quality of Wolves’ opposition goes up several notches from here and much bigger examinations of the work done in pre-season start with the visit of Salford Red Devils on Saturday.

Rochdale: Declan Kay; Alex Gaskell, Deon Cross, Earl Hurst, Rob Massam; Dave Allen, Danny Yates; Joe Taira, Ben Moores, Matty Hadden, Lee Mitchell, Gary Middlehurst, Luke Adamson. Subs: Ryan Maneely, Lewis Hatton, Toby Adamson, Blake Turner, Billy Brickhill, Declan Gregory.

Wolves: Jack Johnson; Tom Lineham, Bryson Goodwin, Toby King, Matty Russell; Harvey Livett, Morgan Smith; Joe Philbin, Daryl Clark, George King, Luis Johnson, Jack Hughes, Ben Westwood. Subs: Joe Pilling, Brad Pinder, Mitch Brown, Taylor Prell, Pat Moran.

Attendance: 644