“It was the best we’ve played all season” – Warrington finding their form at right time

Correspondent

Warrington's Matty Ashton breaks clear to score a try during the Betfred Super League match at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle, Castleford

The Wolves will play Leeds or Hull KR at home in the elimination play-offs next Friday and Price, who is leaving the club at the end of the season to take his family back to Australia, says they are finding their form at the right time.

Full-back Matty Ashton scored a hat-trick of tries as Warrington raced into a 32-0 lead early in the second half but they were forced to withstand a tremendous fightback before clinching a win that brought Castleford’s season to an abrupt end.

Price said: “This is where the good times start, the fun times. We’ll take a lot of belief out of the first 40 minutes, it was the best we’ve played all season. We’re in a good place.

“We took the emotion out of the game nice and early. We played hard and we played fast with a good style to our play, whilst defensively we were really hard-nosed and kept them out a number of times on the line.

“We needed to change the momentum after Castleford’s period being on top and the boys did that.”

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Warrington almost paid a heavy price for their indiscipline, with winger Josh Charnley sin-binned for a dangerous tackle and prop Mike Cooper sent off for use of his shoulder as they found themselves down to 11 men for a brief spell.

Price says his team emerged injury free and he is not worried about Cooper facing any further punishment for his dismissal.

He said: “That was really harsh, a red card for that, it was really tough.

“I’m confident he will not have to answer to that or Josh Charnley’s tackle although it did warrant a yellow.”

Castleford’s defeat means Leeds and Hull KR are guaranteed play-off spots before they meet at Headingley on Friday night, with Warrington hosting the losers in next Friday’s elimination play-off.