Smith: We ground it out

Warrington coach Tony Smith says last night’s Cup win over Widnes wasn’t pretty but was a game to grind out.

Warrington edged Widnes 20-18 in the quarter-final at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

“It had a bit of everything. Not quite at our best but I put a lot of that down to Widnes,” Smith said.

“My boys tried their hearts out. It wasn’t error-free, it wasn’t pretty, it was a game to grind out.

“There are areas we need to improve again but it’s good to get the desire from the side to grind out a win when not quite at your best.”

A Kurt Gidley penalty was enough to get Warrington home, the second time in the past two matches.

Smith admits his team’s attack hasn’t been at its best of late.

“Yeah, we’re having to take few at the moment because we’re not quite silky smooth with some of our attack,” he said.

“So we’ve probably taking a few more penalties than what we normally would. Conditions are a little bit to do with that.

“It’s not easy out there at the moment with a slippery ball. We thought points on the board would be the right way to go at that stage but it was a little bit scrappy in the first half.

“One of the tries we gave away was poor handling from us and they took full advantage of. They’ve got players capable of doing that.