STEVE Price says Warrington Wolves should have closed out victory in tonight’s defeat to Catalans Dragons.

Dec Patton’s try gave The Wire a one-point lead with just 10 minutes remaining at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, but Sam Tomkins’ long-range penalty ensured a 23-22 defeat – their first of the 2019 campaign.

Warrington found themselves 14-0 down early on and Price branded his side’s start as unacceptable.

“We’ve got to be better than that. We should have closed the game out,” he said.

“To go 15-0 down in the first 20 minutes was not like us. That was really disappointing.

“We had a 53 per cent completion rate in the first half but the boys did really well to get back into the game after that.

“We had a chance to close the game out but we weren’t quite good enough tonight.

“The first 20 minutes was not the standard we expect of ourselves, especially the 5-0 penalty count in one block.”

Brayden Wiliame and Kenny Edwards scored tries for the Dragons as they stretched out to an early lead before Stefan Ratchford started The Wire’s comeback before the break.

Daryl Clark and Ryan Atkins completed the turnaround before Remi Casty and Patton swapped tries.

Price explained what he said to his players at the break to inspire their reaction.

“We needed to get back to what we do well in terms of attitude and doing the little things well on and off the ball. We started to do that in the second half,” he said.

“They are tough to play at home. The crowd really got behind them at the back end of the game.”

Price also said Clark’s injury was nothing too serious but he will be assessed ahead of Thursday’s visit of Castleford Tigers.

“Daz isn’t too bad. He just felt a bit of cramp in his calf,” he said.

“He was doing some really good things in that second half but it was a chance to get Jake Mamo out there and add some spark.”