AHEAD of their trip to Salford Red Devils tonight, Steve Price says asking Warrington Wolves to play again just five days after their Wembley win is “so wrong.”

For the second season in a row, The Wire have been given the shortest possible time to prepare for their first league game after a Challenge Cup Final.

The game at the AJ Bell Stadium was initially scheduled for Sunday but was brought forward when Sky Sports selected it for live television coverage.

After beating St Helens at Wembley, Warrington had an extended weekend of celebrations – including a homecoming parade on Monday – and have only had one light training session in preparation for the game.

However, Price says his side must “punch themselves out of a corner” against a Red Devils team that has beaten them twice this season already, is on a run of five straight wins and is fresh from a two-week break from fixtures.

“It’s a bit of a stinker what they have done to us,” he said.

“To change the day from an eight-day turnaround to a five, it’s so wrong.

“We’ll get our gloves on and punch ourselves out of a corner as we always do.

“They’re a good football team and have had some really good wins of late.

“The two times we’ve played them this season, our attitude hasn’t been right.

“It’s important that we dust ourselves off and go again because they are a quality football team.”

Despite defeat putting The Wire at risk of dropping as low as fifth in the Super League table, Price has opted to leave several of his Wembley heroes out of his 19-man squad for the game.

Chris Hill, Mike Cooper, Toby King and Declan Patton will all sit the game out as a much-changed Wolves side prepares to take the field.

Luther Burrell will start at centre while Lama Tasi, Danny Walker and Matty Smith, who was ineligible to play at Wembley, are all brought back in.

Given the lack of preparation time, Price admits some of his players “are not physically ready” to face Ian Watson’s side and avoid a sixth consecutive Super League defeat.

“We’ve only had our captain’s run to prepare. We’ll go hard again and see where we end up,” he said.

“We didn’t come together again until Wednesday so we’ll just have to do our best.

“Wednesday was our first training session back and some of the players aren’t physically ready to play on Thursday.”

Another player who will not feature is Blake Austin, who continues his recovery from the ankle ligament injury that kept him out of Saturday’s memorable win.

Price is hopeful of having his marquee stand-off back before the end of the regular season.

“Blake’s still in rehab at the moment. We’re thinking maybe another week or two for him, but he’s getting close,” he said.

“If he’s right, he’ll be ready to go before the play-offs.

“We’re hoping to get him running again next week.”