TONY Smith says paying attention to speculation surrounding his future would be “crazy.”

The Wolves boss is under increasing pressure following a poor 2017 campaign and below-par recent performances against Championship sides Halifax and London Broncos, despite his side winning both games.

Smith is under contract with The Wire for next year but rumours in the Australian media have linked former Wigan and South Sydney head coach Michael Maguire with a move to The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The club have denied the links with Maguire and Smith says he has not read any of the reports that claim he is set to leave his role.

The former England head coach says he cannot prevent the speculation but says his main focus is securing Wolves’ Super League status.

“It’s up to people what they write but I don’t read anything,” he said.

“It’s got no bearing on what I do whatsoever, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent from fans or the media.

“My job is to get my team back into Super League and do the best we can, and that’s what we’re doing.

“For me to focus on anything other than that would be crazy.”

Despite recording their seventh victory in a row with a 40-38 win at London, Wolves have come in for heavy criticism for their performance.

Smith says he expects “a big response” from his players against Leigh on Saturday, a game in which victory would all but secure their place in Super League for 2018.

The Wire boss has called on his players to avoid the “patches of mediocrity” that have riddled their performances of late.

“The last couple of performances have been average, prior to that we had some good form,” he said.

“You go through ups and downs in every season. We’re still looking for a bit more consistency and hopefully that will come in the next three games.

“We spoke at length about it and we want to put that right. We certainly don’t want to go into those patches of mediocrity like we did at London.

“To be up by 20 points at two different stages and to come within a whisker of drawing the game or worse was disappointing.

“We’d like a big response this week and a more complete performance over the 80 minutes.

“We’ve won those games but we want to do it with a bit more style.”