Wire fan Rob Watson - aka Spirit of 55 - gives his take on the tame end to Warrington Wolves' season...

SADLY, the season finished in keeping with the second half of the year. The long wait for a title goes on.

Any hopes of a successful run in the play-offs were mostly based on the Challenge Cup triumph – maybe they had discovered the formula for success in knock-out games and would be able to produce it on demand.

That conservative style of play that had earned the success in the cup leaves little margin for error, relying on a gradual build-up of pressure to produce enough tries to win the game.

Completing only fifty-seven percent of sets as they did in this game was highly unlikely to ever get the job done.

Another important part to their winning formula at Wembley was getting in front early on. That encourages great belief in the plan and means it is simply a case of sticking to it and holding on to that lead.

Falling behind in this game exposed the inability of this Wire team to be creative and slick enough to play from behind and score tries when they really needed to.

For years now, Wire's biggest weakness has be turning pressure into points and scoring tries from close to their opponent's line.

At the start of this season, it actually looked like this team was going to be different – they seemed to have a few ways of coming up with tries from close range.

Whether it was simply a case of other teams working out what Wire were doing, individual Wire players’ performance levels dropping off or a collective drop in standards is hard to say – it was probably a combination of all three.

For the second half of the season, the potency of the attack reduced alarmingly. When moving the ball wide the timing seems to be so poor, with ball carriers not really knowing where and when runners are going to run and runners not knowing where and when passers are going to pass.

An over-reliance on dominating down the middle left Wire with only one way they could win big games.

Once again, we are left with more questions than answers at the end of the season.

Is Blake Austin the leader from half back that the team is crying out for, or is he more of a brilliant maverick whose main role in the team should be to add moments of crucial creativity?

Will Gareth Widdop be able to make enough of a difference to the fluidity of the attack? With Goodwin leaving and King looking more suited to second row than centre, who will Wire have to provide some strike out wide next year? Can the style of play be changed enough with this current coaching and playing staff to produce a team that is much more enjoyable to watch?

Talk of not being able to get up again after Wembley is interesting – in 2016 and 2018 they managed to get to both finals, so it makes me wonder that it is what happens after Wembley that has the bigger influence on the rest of the Super League season.

Use of the word 'hangover' might be all too literal for some members of the squad.

One thing that was glaringly obvious from Thursday night was the attendance.

If Super League really want to make the play-offs the biggest part of the season, they have to strike up some sort of a deal with clubs to give season ticket holders at least a greatly reduced ticket price for the play-off games.

At the moment, it is farcical and embarrassing for the sport that the play-offs are so often played out in front of the smallest crowds all season.

The signing of Widdop gives cause for optimism for next year, but it is clear that one player is not going to be able to make the required improvements to this team all by himself.

Slickness and cohesiveness in attack need to be improved significantly for Wire to be the best team in Super League next year.

Ultimately it has all ended with another disapointment and I am still waiting to write a book with a happy ending.

One good thing about the 2019 season is that we'll always have Wembley.