"I've no real grievance," he said. "I can understand why they didn't give it. But had he given it, I would have understood that too because the reason Danny didn't get his boot to the ball was because Tomkins had tapped his leg.

"I thought we showed a lot of steel. Even when Wigan came back and gave us a couple of body shots just after half-time, we re-grouped and really put them under the cosh."

McDermott was delighted with the efforts of young wingmen Hardaker and Ben Jones-Bishop and singled out for praise veteran forward Jamie Peacock.

"He's tenacious," he said. "I tried to get him off the field but the message came 'leave me on, I'm going to win the game'.

"They're shattered at the moment. They invested a lot in that game, JP in particular, and I'm very proud of them."

"We performed and gave ourselves something to hang our hat on and go into next week with."