DESPITE their poor current form, Warrington Wolves will be contenders for the Super League title come the end of this year.

That was the view of Paul Wellens after watching his St Helens side emerge from a thrilling contest at The Halliwell Jones Stadium victorious on Friday night.

The Wire and head coach Daryl Powell have come in for intense criticism in recent weeks after an alarming drop-off in both results and performances led to them slipping away from the top of the table.

Friday’s 24-20 loss extended their slump to six defeats in seven matches, but they have received praise for a much-improved performance.

One of those impressed by what they saw from Warrington was Wellens, who says he is in no doubt their neighbours would return to form.

“If I’m honest, I never once thought throughout the season that they weren’t going to be contenders,” he said.

“If you look at the season as a whole, every team has gone through moments and tough times, ourselves included.

“Warrington are going through one of those at the moment but if you look at the effort levels and the way they’re competing – but for the first 10-15 minutes against Leeds, they were right in that game and working so hard for each other – that was there for all to see tonight.

“That’s not a team that lacks effort. They’re going to be dangerous at the back end of the year.”

Warrington had looked set for a shock win after Matt Dufty’s try put them 20-12 up following Matty Ashton’s earlier brace and two Stefan Ratchford penalties.

However, Saints fought back in the final quarter and overhauled their hosts through tries from Lewis Dodd and Jonny Lomax to move up to third in the table.

“If you’re a neutral tuning into that, you’re absolutely loving it,” Wellens said.

“At the same time, I didn’t particularly enjoy it – it was a rollercoaster of emotions and I’m delighted we’ve come out on the right side of the result.

“What you saw was two committed teams going right at it – in tight games like that, the result can go either way so I’m just thankful.

“As a coach, you can pick the eyeballs out of it but I think it was character from us.

“The way we kept turning up for each other and working hard – they challenged us defensively a lot and opened us up.

“When you go eight points down and the crowd was right behind them, for us to keep our composure and flip the game on its head was really pleasing.

“I was confident that if we were ourselves, we could hold them out.

“Sometimes you can get caught in wanting to finish the game off but what this team has done well in the past is defend out games. I had every confidence we could do that.”