GARETH Widdop has been an undoubted bright spot of Warrington Wolves’ season so far.

Hampered by off-field struggles during his maiden Super League season, many were convinced the England man would not pull on the primrose and blue shirt again.

True to his word, however, he returned and has this year shown the kind of form The Wire were hoping for when they made him a marquee signing.

Eight tries and six try assists in 10 games in all competitions barely tell the story of how influential he has been in the season’s early weeks.

However, he is not allowing himself to get carried away and his goal is a simple one.

“I just want to be that consistent player I pride myself on doing every week, and that's competing hard and doing my job for the team,” he said.

"As the weeks have gone on, I’ve been feeling and getting better.

"I still want to improve and keep building my role in the team and work on little areas.

"It's a long season and there's still plenty of games to go.

"Collectively as a group, we all need to go out there and play well together. If we can do that, we'll have a good year.”

The 32-year-old was the subject of persistent rumours of an early NRL return throughout last year and they gathered pace when he went back Down Under during the off-season to visit his family.

Those reports continue to rumble in the background, but the former St George Illawarra and Melbourne Storm man is playing with a smile on his face.

“"It's been talked about that I went back to Australia at the back end of last year but it was good to come in and get a full pre-season under my belt,” Widdop said.

"That really stood me in good stead to be fair.

"We reviewed last year, came up with a style of play and a team we want to be. We simplified things both individually and as a team.

"It's been spoken about that I had a lot of things on away from the game but doing my job and my role is what I've done since I was a kid.

"It was about going out and enjoying playing football again and you play your best when you do that.”

As The Wire now seek to bounce back from Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final exit, Widdop is likely to be at the forefront of those efforts once again.

Wakefield Trinity are the visitors to The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday and the scrum-half has full faith his teammates will deliver the response supporters demand.

He admits, however, the nature of the 35-20 loss to Castleford has “taken a bit of getting over.”

“It's never easy losing a game like that,” he said.

"In such a big game, to go out and perform the way we did was disappointing and it's taken a bit of getting over.

"We understand that what we dished up wasn't good enough. We need to go out and fix that.

"I've got all the faith in the boys though to go out there on Friday and put in 100 per cent effort in.

"We've got another job to do now on Friday night. You have to assess it and move on quick.

"When you've had a bad loss, you always want to get back out on the field and perform well. Thankfully, it comes around quick.

"We've been good in patches but we've been a little bit inconsistent and our defence has let us down.

"Our big focus is defending well on Friday and we'll score points off the back of that.”