Kenneth Jarvis, Warrington Wolves Blogger

Some performances you know will live with you for a long time, where it all comes together to produce something special, and that’s exactly what Warrington did vs Hull FC on Friday.

Going into the match there wasn’t a whole deal of confidence surrounding our chances. We’d found out that Ben Currie had torn his ACL, Kurt Gidley would miss the match and Chris Sandow was still not able to return. Three star players what would hurt any team if they were missing. To add to that, there was a feeling that the team blew their chance vs Wigan the week before after losing a commanding lead after they had Ben Flower sent off. Then of course, we were playing Hull FC, the only team to have beaten us three times this season, the bookmakers were expecting it to be a fourth.

The Warrington players weren’t going to lie down and feel sorry for themselves after a bad seven days. Instead of going into the Super League playoffs trophyless and with a whimper, the young players shone and the captain was fantastic.

There has been a lot of talk as to whether Warrington could do it in the big matches, following many big defeats since the Challenge Cup final win in 2012, and it was feared that the Wigan loss could have dented the confidence of the team and affect our chances of silverware. One player who needed to have a big game for Warrington to win as always was Chris Hill, he led by example as he has done all year, and made a series of brilliant carries that helped Daryl Clark work his magic from the ruck. There was been surprise from some that he hasn’t been nominated for the ‘Man of Steel’ award for this season, and he is certainly worthy of the honour. He has been the stand out prop in the league for a few years now, and Warrington couldn’t have beaten Hull FC without him.

On the back of brilliant performance by Hill, Aston Sims, and the rest of the forwards, there was one performance that epitomised the young talent at the club, and was it has to offer us in the next decade. Whenever he has been called upon this year Dec Patton has proved that he belongs at this level, and has covered for the brilliant Sandow or Gidley with great aplomb. Friday night however took it to a new level, he controlled the game like a seasoned veteran and his kicking was sublime. His performances have been so good that I think he deserves to start for the rest of the season now, regardless of who comes back. If Warrington have been accused of going missing in the big games, here is one player that has stood up and shown that he thrives in them.

One of the proudest things from the win, was that it was done with 16 out of the 17 players involved being British. Not only is that a great nod to Warrington’s ability to bring through home grown talent, the age of the players as well shows that the future is very bright. Six of the players were aged 21 or under with that number increasing to 11 with players that were 24 or under.

One of those 24 year old players is Tom Lineham, who is probably having the worst year of his young career so far. More performances like the one he put up against his former side however will quickly erase the mistakes that he’s made this year. It wasn’t his two tries which were his stand out contribution to the game, it was the two Hull FC tries that he saved with last ditch tackles where his effort was rewarded with keeping Hull FC from adding a score. His performance was indicative of the whole team, as it was very much a brilliant team performance were each player put in maximum effort for the club, to make sure the League Leaders Shield was won.

I was going to do a Twitter poll after the game to see who the fans thought deserved to be man of the match, but I couldn’t justify having just four names on there. Whatever happens for the rest of the season, Warringtonians can be very proud of their team. Friday night was everything you could ask for as a fan, talented players winning big matches by having 100% commitment and playing an entertaining brand of rugby in the process.

Some performances stick in the memory, and that one will for a long time. It brought the first piece of Silverware back to Warrington for four years, and showed that there are young players at the club that will be stars for many years to come. Two more performances like that this season, and we’ll be Grand Final winners.