THIS should not have been allowed to happen.

And yet, such has been the sorry state of Warrington Wolves’ 2022 season, nobody was really surprised when it was.

When Matt Parcell crossed for a try that was among the softest you will see to reduce their lead to four points, it was almost as if a grim sense of inevitability swept through the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

And so it came to pass – a Hull KR side that were broken, busted and on the back foot for the vast majority of the game found a way to waltz back over the Pennines with two valuable points.

Warrington Guardian:

An aghast and dejected Stefan Ratchford at full time. Picture by SWPix.com

All credit to them for the grit they showed to turn around what looked like a completely hopeless situation but from a Wire perspective, the fact they were allowed to do so is absolutely criminal.

In effect, they had the game won twice.

The visitors had no answer to them as they swept into a 14-point lead early on – just reward for as dominant an opening quarter as they’ve produced all season.

Warrington Guardian:

Two early tries from Jake Wardle capped a fine start from Wire. Picture by Mike Boden

And when Thomas Mikaele powered over, The Wire led by 10 points and still several minutes to play against 12 men with Elliot Minchella in the sin bin.

The forwards were dominant, the creative players were making hay off the back of it – everything looked set up. Surely nothing could go wrong...

Yet it did. As they have done in a few games of late, this squad found a way to take the good work they had done and simply throw it away.

Is it any wonder why supporters are so angry? Why wouldn’t they be when they see the same mistakes being made time and time again?

It is not as though they are incapable of doing things right – albeit fleetingly, they’ve shown the kind of raw materials they need to dig themselves out of this horrendously deep hole.

However, they’re not showing it anywhere near often enough and the wild swings from one end of the performance spectrum to the other make this all the more frustrating.

And while Daryl Powell has had – and still has – plenty of sympathy from supporters, that is disappearing pretty quickly.

There is clearly something about his message that isn’t getting through to a group of players who, in the vast majority of cases, will be around next year. He has to ask himself why that is.

Let’s face facts – any hopes of a play-off place are now surely over. It is time to batten down the hatches and simply focus on winning matches.

Warrington Guardian:

Picture by SWPix.com