JOE Westerman says the team “owe Wigan one” after victory was snatched away from them in their meeting at Magic Weekend four weeks ago.

The Wire’s last meeting with Wigan saw them come from 18-6 down to lead 24-20 going into the final minute in Newcastle on May 20, but Joe Burgess’ last-gasp try salvaged a 24-24 draw for Shaun Wane’s side.

Wolves have lost every game since then and Westerman believes that game is the root cause of their dip in confidence.

“That was a particularly tough one to take,” he admitted.

“Performance-wise it was probably one of our best of the season, certainly in the second half, and we felt we deserved to win.

“To be pegged back like that was very hard for us to deal with and our confidence took a hit from it. We feel like we owe them one for that.”

A loose forward by trade, Westerman was used in the halves during Sunday’s 36-16 defeat to Castleford Tigers, a position he played as a junior.

However, while insisting he was happy to play wherever head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith asks him to, the England international hopes it will only be a short-term move.

“I’m not really built for the backs anymore! I feel it went okay but I wasn’t fully comfortable there,” he said.

“I think that was clear for everyone to see but I was happy to play there for Tony and the team and I gave it 100 per cent.”

“Teams in better form than we’re in have gone there and had 50 put past them.

“It would have been easy for us to go that way with the circumstances but we didn’t.

“Some aspects of our performance improved, but we know we were still nowhere near good enough.”