Sims urges fans not to lose faith
Ashton Sims has urged Warrington fans to stick with the team as they look to turn around their recent dismal form.
The Wolves have shipped 122 points in their last three games and face a massive battle to force their way into the Super 8s.
Things don’t get any easier on Sunday with a trip to league leaders Castleford and Sims admits the players understand the fans’ frustrations.
“We’ve had a couple of training sessions where we’ve just changed a couple of ideas and bandied a couple of things together and it’s been a good week so far which it has to be,” said Sims.
“We’ve got some of most loyal fans in this competition hands down and seeing the disappointment in some of their faces is hard.
“I know everyone takes it to heart, but they’re the lifeline of this club. I can understand their frustration, but we just need to go back to playing as we know how to play.
“We should be playing the brand of footy we know we can play and just doing it for each other and for our club.”
Last week’s disappointing 44-4 loss at Huddersfield was Wire’s third successive defeat and with Castleford looming large this weekend Sims acknowledged the team needs to improve.
“We were so tight with our defence last year and now we’ve conceded a few points these last few games,” he added.
“In my experience you can’t keep looking backwards, you’ve got to look forward. Cas are probably one of the best attacking teams in the comp and they play an expansive brand of footy.
“We’re going to have to be right on our tail to stop some of their shifts and attacking sequences. We’ve had a look at them – it’s one thing to watch it on tape, but it’s another thing to actually go out there and defend it.”
Warrington head into the game tenth in the table, level on points with Huddersfield and just a point behind eighth-placed Catalan.
Sims believes the Wolves are capable of a top eight finish and wants his teammates to hold the same belief.
“If i’m playing with guys that don’t think we can make the eight then I don’t want to play with them,” said Sims.
“That’s not just me talking, I think that’s everyone. It’s been a tough year so far, but if we can scrape into that eight in these next five games I think anything can happen.
“We don’t want to look too far forward – we’ll just worry about Cas this week and going out there doing our job and playing how we know we can play and getting the two points.
“All I can say to the fans is don’t lose the faith. Our fans are very passionate and I’ve got the utmost respect for them even though it’s been a difficult year.
“I know they feel the pain as much as we do, but there’s still five games to go in the regular season so just don’t give up on us yet.”