‘Relief’ for Willie Poching after Wakefield Trinity victory

In his first game in charge since taking over from the sacked Chris Chester, they had been coasting at 26-6 heading into the final stages.

Tom Johnstone, David Fifita, Mason Lino and Lee Kershaw had all scored tries, Lino improving them all and adding a penalty.

However, Warrington threatened an unlikely comeback late on when they crossed three times in just five minutes via Blake Austin, Jake Mamo and Josh Charnley.

“It’s mixed,” said Poching, when asked for his feelings.

“There’s a bit of relief on the back of the week we’d had.

“I was really happy for the lads and happy they got some reward for their effort.

“I was really pleased with how they played and how they scored some of our tries.

“We showed some resilience defensively and came up with three tries through our tenacity and will and we showed some real spirit which was the most pleasing thing.”

However, Poching conceded he would be asking questions about what happened in that nightmarish spell towards the end.

“We didn’t really have a lot of good-ball second half and they were always threatening with the quality of player on the field,” he added.

“It was disappointing how they scored a couple long-range on us.

“The response was a little bit disappointing and we’ll pay attention to that but I was never really comfortable in that game.

“We took the two points to 20-0 and there was always a danger the mindset would change.

“I felt it was the right thing to do to get us to that margin but whether mentally they felt it was done, I’m not sure. They caught us with our pants down.

“They were capable of coming up with things but thankfully we had enough about us to finish off the job.”

Poching, 47, certainly got Wakefield playing with freedom as they secured a fifth win of the campaign.

“We asked them to just try to play on the front foot and play with as much support as they could and they got their rewards for it,” he added.

“In games we’ve won this year, I really felt playing the style of football we’re capable of helped us.

“I wanted to release the shackles a bit and I’m really pleased they took some of that on.”

Poching has said he wants the job full-time but insisted he would be just “focusing” on the now and preparing the side for Saturday’s trip to Castleford Tigers.