MIKE Cooper has placed the ball firmly in Warrington Wolves’ court when it comes to his future at his hometown club.

The popular prop forward is out of contract at the end of the season but has been strongly linked with a move to Huddersfield Giants for next year.

When asked about his plans for next year by Sky Sports following last night’s 12-10 loss to St Helens, Cooper declared he would continue to give “his heart and soul” to the club but that “sometimes things are taken out of your hands.”

“I don’t know anything yet. The speculation is just for the media,” he said.

“I’ve always been a proud Warringtonian – I give my heart and soul for this club every week and I try my best.

“It’s down to the club to announce. Sometimes these things get taken out of your hands – that’s just the way it is.

“I’ll give my all for this club but it’s down to them to announce anything.”

Despite slipping to a third defeat in a row, The Wire put in a vastly-improved performance – arguably their best of the season in spite of the result – in losing to the league leaders.

With both sides scoring two tries each, a single Tommy Makinson conversion was all that separated them in a thrilling encounter at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

In terms of it being a response to heavy defeats to Catalans Dragons and Wigan Warriors, however, Cooper says there was clear progress.

“We were annoyed with ourselves last week with the way we crumbled towards the back end of the game,” he said.

“Sometimes things just don’t go your way – I thought we were unlucky right at the end.

“You can’t knock the effort – as long as we’re improving each week, that’s all we’re after at the minute.

“The performances this year haven’t been through a lack of trying. We’ve been overplaying at times but I thought we played really smart with the ball.

“Defensively, it’s all about effort and we showed that in abundance tonight.

“I think the pressure’s got to us a little bit and we’ve done things in stages.

“Catalans last week – we were there or thereabouts for 65 minutes then we crumbled. St Helens at their place – we had a really good start for 20 minutes and then we crumbled.

“I think tonight, we put a better 80-minute performance in. It’s about mental discipline and keeping hold of the ball.

“Sometimes we’ll go penalty-error-penalty-error and we’re on the back foot. We’ve got to learn to be better in those situations.

“There was a little bit of that tonight but definitely a step in the right direction.”