WARRINGTON Wolves’ England captain George Williams has admitted there is a ‘soft underbelly’ in this Wire team and that players’ efforts need to improve.

Williams gave a frank and honest assessment of the situation following Friday night’s 30-10 home defeat to Super League leaders Catalans Dragons at the end of a week in which head coach Daryl Powell departed the club.

The Wire have now lost seven successive matches, equalling the club’s worst run of defeats in a Super League season going back to 2002.

Powell’s exit after the woeful 42-6 loss at bottom club Wakefield last Sunday meant this was the first game in charge for interim head coach Gary Chambers, whose side lie in fifth spot after their Round 21 clash.

“I think we showed a lot more effort his week than we did last week, but we weren't good enough against a good Catalans side but I think too many pressure releases allowed them to have too much field position and they punished us in the end,” Williams told Sky Sports.

Warrington started the season with a club record eight Super League wins on the bounce and were top of the table until Round 13, so Williams was asked: “What’s gone wrong?”

He said: “Great question, we're looking for that answer ourselves in the changing rooms.

“I know it's simple to say but we work hard every week in training but we're not delivering when we play, when it matters most.

“It's been disappointing for the past eight to 10 weeks. It's concerning, but like Chambo said, we're doing our best and at the minute that's not good enough.”

The plan was to see a reaction on the field following Powell’s exit.

Williams said: “It was disappointing, you don't want anyone losing their job.

“Daryl’s been here for 18 months and he'd been building relationships and bonds but as a group we've just had to move on and a reaction was what we needed.

“We showed it in patches but it's not good enough in patches at the moment.

“I'll not beat around the bush, we're soul searching, there's lads that are down on confidence and confidence is a big part of sport at the moment.

“We're down, I'll not sugar coat it, but we are working hard and we are doing our best to turn it round.”

Williams was asked what kind of a coach does this playing group need?

He said: “I'll leave that to the CEO and owners in charge.

“We can only control what we do on the pitch and at the moment that's not good enough, as I keep repeating.

“It’s back to the drawing board, we've got a week off now to reset and come back stronger.”

When Williams was asked if there is a soft underbelly in The Wire playing squad, Williams said: “Dishing up what we have done, then yes.

“I think teams will be saying that when they come up against us.

“We can stick with teams for 10, 20 sometimes 60 minutes, but we fall off. That could be a fair account of us at the moment.”

In a message to The Wire fans about what can be expected between now and the rest of the year in the continued bid to finish in the top-six play-off places, Williams said: “All we can do is give our all.

“At the moment we're falling short in a lot of areas. You get the effort areas right and the rest will come but at the moment we are probably down on them and then our skill's not good on the back of it so it's a big snowball at the moment but we're going to give our all.

“Please stick with us, get behind us, and keep turning up spending your hard-earned money because we appreciate it.”