Warrington frustrate, as always

Nothing frustrates quite like Warrington. There is a feeling this season that we should be top of the league, and comfortably. We have been able to come out on top when playing most of the best sides, but have fallen short in games that we really should be winning. He have done the double over Leeds, Wigan, Catalans, won away vs Saints and even managed to beat our rivals Widnes three times this season, but we somehow find ourselves 3rd.

It’s not like it’s been a bad season so far, and we could still win the treble, but I think the league leaders shield maybe a step too far. There are still a lot of games left to play including the super eight’s so hopefully there will be room for improvement, and the likes of Hull FC will hit a bad patch. It may suit Warrington playing against better team’s week in, week out.
The league leaders shield is the least regarded of the three trophies (even though is think it should be the highest) so there is no immediate concern at the moment. If we have our best players available for the biggest matches then we’d go into any games very confident. All teams have injuries, but we don’t seem to be able to cope without some key players, notably Gidley and Sandow.

Something would have to go badly wrong now for Warrington not to finish in the top four after 30 matches, but it’s by no means a done thing. St. Helens could hit a rich vein of form which could see them make the cut, but it’s hard to see any other teams making a serious challenge. Warrington should be looking up, not down however, and final regular season fixtures of Salford, Castleford and Huddersfield should see us having a strong finish to the first part of the season, but it never seems to work out that way.

This British summer doesn’t seem to be helping results either which is embarrassing to admit. Whilst heavy rain could be a leveller for any two teams, Warrington seem to lose the ability to do the basics when there is even a little bit of moisture on the pitch. Fans from other teams won’t look at a weather forecast quite like Warringtonians do, and gulp when it looks like there is going to be a dark cloud. It can’t be this wet all summer, so hopefully an improvement in weather will see an improvement in results too.

On reflection, this season has been a lot better than the last few and we should probably be thankful that we are right in the mix at the backend of the season, and not desperately clinging onto the hope of a 4th placed finish as we were last season. The term has started brightly, but faded, there is still hope of a glorious end to it though. In order for that to happen we need to start playing better and being more consistent, but that’s easier said than done.