Wigan Warriors coach Adrian Lam insists that he still believes his players can do something special this season.
The Warriors are in fourth place on the Betfred Super League ladder with a win percentage of 60%, and they looked dishevelled and out-of-sorts during their 2-26 defeat against rivals St Helens at the DW Stadium on Friday evening in front of 16,319 spectators.
Their attacking game failed to fire against the champions as they failed to score a try at the DW Stadium for the first time ever.
Lam was clearly frustrated with what his side dished up, but he still believes they are capable of putting a run of wins together and ending the season in a healthy position.
“I’ve got belief in the players,” he said.
“I know it was a real disappointment and we didn’t give ourselves a chance, but I have confidence in the group that we will rally, and we will get it right in the next few weeks. I know the players are positive about what we can do for the rest of the year.
“The effort of the players is there – they’re having a dig. Our defence was brutal and aggressive at times, which is what we want to see, but there wasn’t enough of it.”
Lam understands the club’s supporters will be angry and disappointed following the performance against the Saints, but he has urged them to stick with them as he attempts to put things right.
“We love our fans,” added Lam.
“I know there will be a lot of disappointed people. We understand and we will address it. I’d like to thank them all for turning out.”
Dissecting the result and performance on Friday night, Lam admitted that their discipline was poor, and they will need to work on that more than anything. John Bateman was sent to the sinbin twice, while Willie Isa also received a yellow card and was placed on report for a separate incident.
Lam said: “We attacked poorly and didn’t give ourselves an opportunity. I was disappointed with the discipline. I love emotion but you have to have intelligence with it, and it came back to hurt us. We didn’t manage the process.
“It was a tough game – we didn’t have the start we wanted to. We took the penalty to make it 2-6 and on the next set we got tackled into touch, which is not who we want to be. Everything we tried, we were frustrated, and it looked like we didn’t manage the game properly.
“We looked a bit clunky, but you are going to be like that with so many changes in recent weeks with players coming back in and others out. We just need to get some cohesion.”
The above content is also available in the regular weekly edition of League Express, on newsstands every Monday in the UK and as a digital download. Click here for more details.
