TONY Smith says his Warrington Wolves side are heading in the right direction again - and hit back at criticisms by Sky Sports summariser Phil Clarke.

The Wire are gearing up for a testing three months, with a Challenge Cup semi-final date to come against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats followed by the Super 8s, a potential showdown at Wembley and play-offs.

Assessing his team’s position two thirds into the campaign, Wolves' head of coaching and rugby said: “We’re there or thereabouts and we’ve as good a chance as anybody.

“I thought Wigan stepped it up last week but I don’t think anybody else has been really on fire lately.

“Hull have put a good period together but they’ve probably flattened off a bit in terms of performance, not just results.

“I thought Wigan stepped it up against Catalans and it is time to do that for those teams who want to go on for the rest of the season to give themselves a chance.

“I thought we took some steps that way in the performance against Salford but we’ve still got a bit to go.

“It’s open for the top teams I think, whoever really wants to grab it will grab it from here on in.”

“We start our big stuff now and we’ve got to take that into account about how we prepare and look after our players, and how we treat our international players as well.

“They are long seasons and that needs to be taken into account.

“It’s hard for all our teams. I think there are some players who have been carrying knocks since Easter and because you lose a few long-term players those others have to keep playing with injury.

“So all your performances drop as a result, and I think a lot of teams have been in that case where they have players who can’t train much but have to play.

“And that’s probably why you don’t get some of the more spectacular games in terms of intensity.”

With a place in the top four secure as a result of the win against Salford, Wolves have earned themselves the additional home game on offer in the Super 8s phase that starts in August.

“The extra home game is handy,” said Smith.

“We like playing at home and have a pretty good record here without it being quite a fortress.

“But I’d like to think it isn’t going to come down to whether we’re home or away, that we’re in form and playing well. That’s important for us and we’ve got a little bit to go.

“I don’t want to sound doom and gloom. I’m certainly not up to the levels of Phil Clarke (Sky Sports summariser) where we’re hopeless and we’re all going to be on the scrapheap by the end of the year.

“We’re doing okay. Number one in attack and number one in defence, so we’re not a bad team despite not sitting at the top at the moment. We’re still fighting for that.

“There’s still a bit of time to go and there’s a bit of fight left in us yet.”

After some lacklustre performances of late, Smith had mixed feelings about the victory over a Salford side that will be playing in the Middle 8s next month and battling against relegation.

Two tries from Ryan Atkins at the back end of the first half finally put Wolves in control, while Joe Westerman completed his double in a second half that also featured tries from Dec Patton, Tom Lineham and Matty Russell.

There was some fine goal-kicking on display too, with Patton landing two spectacular efforts from the touchline among his five successes.

“There’s some good, bad and ugly in amongst the patches we played in. Less of the ugly and less of the bad, and bit more good this week so I’m pleased about that. But there’s still some areas we definitely need to work on,” he said.

“It was nice to score some points again. It’s not been flowing for us but there was some really top-class attack at times and some really good shots on the back of some outstanding pieces of play.

“You can often go weeks and weeks without seeing 40-20s and we had a couple in one game.

“There were some lapses in defence, which has been our strong point.

“I think we’ve had the number one defence all year and the number one attack. Some of our defence wasn’t up to where you’d think a number one team in defence would be.

“I thought there were some outstanding last-ditch efforts to stop tries as well, with Brad Dwyer’s effort being one. Some of those sort of things showed some desperation.

“We’ll keep working on things but it’s certainly not doom and gloom. Overall I think the scoreline reflects pretty well.

“In terms of players, I thought Joe Westerman was fantastic. He was pretty good the previous week for us as one of our leading performers but this week I thought he really stood out along with Ryan Atkins.

“Ryan is back to some of his best. He’s having a really good season. He’s had to rebuild himself over the past year and he’s really done that well.

“Ashton Sims coming back into the squad made a really big difference too.

“It’s good to see a couple of those fresh bodies come in and make a difference.”