SAM Burgess' message about his Warrington Wolves team has been pretty consistent throughout the year - they are going the right way, but there is work still to do.

And despite watching his side hit the high point of his reign thus far in beating neighbours St Helens convincingly to reach the Challenge Cup semi-finals, that message remained unchanged.

Having said that, he was keen to pay tribute to his players for delivering a special display to beat Saints for the first time since June 2021.

Here is everything the Wire boss said to the media post-match...

Q: Is “wow” the only word after that?

SB: I thought we were good in areas – I wouldn’t say “wow” because we’ve still got a bit left.

Q: Still, a very impressive outing?

SB: I’m really pleased for the team and they deserve the reward of the win.

Saints are a champion side and are very physical, so we knew we were going to have to be good to come here and get the win.

I was proud of the effort – there were some really good moments tonight.

Q: A lot of people are calling this a statement win for Warrington with the manner in which you’ve won that?

SB: We scored some points at the back end which meant the scoreline probably didn’t reflect the game.

I thought Saints were good but we won a few 50-50s which we worked hard on – George Williams makes that try-saving play in the first half and those moments are really big in the context of the game.

I think going in at 7-6 at half time really made a difference but overall, it’s a great team performance and that’s what we were after.

Q: And how about Matty Ashton’s try?

SB: It was some try, wasn’t it?

He practices really hard on things like that so it’s not just fluke – he was out there 50 or 60 of those after training.

For any young kids out there, it shows that practice works.

Q: How did you rate your captain George Williams’ performance?

SB: George has been good since he’s been back and he’s only going to get better the more time he’s out there.

Leon complements him, Danny Walker was good today but they were all good. It was a good team performance.

Q: What do you feel was the turning point that set you off on that hot streak of scoring points?

SB: We put a good kick into the bottom right corner and then they made an error on play two or three.

Although we didn’t get anything from it, they made an error on the next set after we’d gone after them with our defence and momentum changed.

I thought our fans were brilliant and we got on the back of that and rode the momentum from it.

Q: Do you feel like that bond is really growing between you guys and the supporters now?

SB: I think so but I’m realistic about it.

We’re at round seven or eight in the league and we’ve got a semi-final in four weeks’ time. It’s still so early in the year.

There’s going to be blemishes and there’s going to be great days. Today was a good day for us and I thought we improved.

Coming here and winning is no easy thing so there’s some improvement there.

Q: It’s been a few year since Warrington won a game like this against a Saints or a Wigan, so do you feel like this could be a bit of a glass ceiling moment for the team and the club as a whole?

SB: I’m pretty relaxed about that.

It was a good performance but it’s done and really counts for nothing now. We have to move on.

There’s players who are disappointed about the moments we didn’t take, which is a pretty good place to be I think.

We’re not getting carried away – we’re playing good in patches but we can improve in areas.

Q: People will talk about the flash players but how much are you enjoying the basic grittiness you’re showing?

SB: I think everyone’s got a role to play in that victory.

The flash moments are for the flash players and the gritty moments are for the gritty players, but it’s getting the right balance between those.

We’ve got some flashy players and now we’ve got some gritty players that add to the final result.

We’ve also got some young guys who have been great – I’m not asking them to do anything they can’t do.

We’ve been practicing to just get our jobs done and they’ve got belief in what they’re doing.