IT was a case of "job done" for Warrington Wolves yesterday.

They were made to work incredibly hard for it, but they emerged victorious in a ferocious battle against Leigh Leopards thanks to a late fightback.

Here, our Wire reporter Matt Turner picks out five key post-match talking points and takeaways from the action...

Good teams win ugly

That’s how the old saying goes and it certainly applies here.

Nobody could really say that was a vintage Warrington Wolves performance – only they will be able to tell you if the after-effects of last week’s efforts against St Helens caught up with them, but they looked flat for most of the game.

However, managing to dig deep and pull out a victory in spite of that is the mark of a good side, and there’s an increasing body of evidence to show Wire can consider themselves one of those.

Leigh deserve immense credit for the way they performed and were desperately unlucky to leave The Halliwell Jones Stadium empty-handed. When key players such as John Asiata and Edwin Ipape return, they will be very hard to stop.

For Warrington, they will know they need to be better moving forward but have another victory to savour.

Do Wire win that game last year?

Grinding games out is not something you’d really associate with Warrington sides of the recent past.

Neither is coping with the kind of pressure they were put under for large stages of the game and coming out of those periods still in touch with their opposition.

As such, one has to ask the question – would Wire have won this game last year? The answer for many will probably be “no.”

The desperation and fight they are showing in abundance at the minute simply hasn’t been there for so long and seeing that from a team in primrose and blue really is a refreshing chance.

Long may it continue.

Strength in final quarter shows again

Making a decisive move in the final stages of games is becoming an increasingly popular trend for Warrington.

Their past three victories in a row have all been tight going into the last 20 minutes but in all three, Wire have either powered clear or in this case, powered back.

The final quarter is by far their most profitable period for try-scoring – exactly a third of the tries they have scored have come between the 61st and 80th minutes – while they have also conceded just twice in that period.

That’s testament to the physical condition they are clearly in as well as the aforementioned desire and desperation for victory.

If this trend continues, it can only be a good thing.

A match that will serve them well for what’s ahead

In these kinds of games, you learn so much more about your team than you would in a 30–40-point stroll in the park.

You see just how far your players are willing to go in order to secure those two valuable points and as we’ve already discussed, this Wire squad are clearly quite happy to dig very deep indeed.

There are going to be more games like this as we move through the season, whether it’s Wire not being completely at it in terms of performance, teams working out how best to hinder them or matches that are genuinely on a knife edge throughout.

Knowing they can drag out that extra couple of per cent needed to get themselves over the line in them is a huge boost for them and can only serve them well going forward.

"Waterhouse vibes" from Ferocious Fitzgibbon

Lachlan Fitzgibbon has been threatening a try pretty much since he first stepped onto an English field.

His precise and ferocious line-running have been a huge threat and a key part of Wire’s excellent start to the year, but he finally got his rewards on Saturday as he timed his chase of Leon Hayes’ kick to perfection to touch down.

That capped a superb individual performance in which he also set up Matt Dufty’s try and produced a highlight-reel tackle on Umyla Hanley which helped change the momentum of the game.

On both sides of the ball, he is contributing hugely in the kind of way his fellow Australian Trent Waterhouse used to do during his highly successful three-year stint at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

If he can leave half as popular as “House” was in these parts, he will have done a good job – and he’s certainly made a good start on that front.