WAS this Steve Price’s finest Super League victory as Warrington Wolves head coach?

Albeit weakened by injury and worsened by Alex Walmsley pulling up in the warm-up, St Helens were still bookmakers’ favourites to come away from The Halliwell Jones Stadium with two points.

What followed, however, was a highly impressive Wire display and a 19-0 victory in a red-hot atmosphere.

So would Price put his side’s win among his finest in charge?

“It would definitely be up there,” he said.

“It’s always pleasing when you put solid performances together.

“There were some really good signs last week. We built off the back of that and that was really encouraging.

“To keep a quality team like Saints to zero points is pleasing. They’re a fantastic rugby team but the energy we displayed across the line and the amount of work, effort and detail we were doing from the inside was first class.

“We were playing some rugby too. We were playing fairly direct with a bit of ball movement, too.”

The Wire were relentless in defence – winning collisions, forcing errors and when scramble was needed, some of their efforts were first-class.

Stefan Ratchford stopping a certain Kevin Naiqama try in the corner was a huge turning point and even when the game was won at the end, the determination to keep their clean sheet intact saw Jonny Lomax held up over the line in the final minute.

With Chris Hill absent, the likes of Mike Cooper, Joe Philbin and Sitaleki Akauola had to step up and they did just that.

Creatively, Blake Austin and Stefan Ratchford controlled things, Daryl Clark was once again a stand-out while Matty Ashton put in another display of confidence at full-back “The spine are growing in confidence. They are going to get better,” Price said.

“Mike Cooper had to step up with Hilly being absent and Joe Philbin played some big minutes.

“There’s been a big emphasis on their ground work in pre-season and they were trying to dominate that, but as the game went on I thought we started to win those little battles in the middle third and on the edges.”

A long turnaround now precedes The Wire’s next assignment – a trip to Wakefield a week on Sunday.

Price was confident he would have marquee signing Gareth Widdop available to make his debut at Belle Vue – but how does he fit in?

“I’m pretty confident Gareth will come into consideration next week,” he said.

“Jack Hughes – I’m not too sure. I don’t think we’ve got any injuries tonight.

“It’s important we don’t get carried away with ourselves and remain humble.

“We want to be a consistent rugby league team this season and that’s our challenge. We’ve got to back it up at Wakefield.”