Paul Cullen quits as Warrington Wolves coach

May 27 2008 by Andy Hampson

PAUL CULLEN quit Warrington last night after leading the Wolves to a 36-28 defeat to bottom club , Super League's longest-serving coach, last night resigned as Warrington boss after his side's dramatic 36-28 home defeat by bottom club Castleford at the Halliwell-Jones stadium.

The 45-year-old, Super League’s longest serving coach, told his players he was leaving after the side’s sixth defeat in their last seven league matches.

HeCullen, 45 said: ''I have no regrets and feel no bitterness. I am sure the team will kick on from here."

Assistant Jimmy Lowes is now expected to take temporary charge.

Paul Cullen looks to have taken charge of Cullen’s last game in charge saw Warrington slump to an embarrassing defeat against Castleford.

The Wolves capitulated in the final 10 minutes , throwing away a 28-14 lead to lose 36-28 to the engage Super League’s bottom side.

And angry supporters staged a sit-in protest after the game to call for Cullen’s removal of Cullen and reports later claimed the head coach had indeed resigned.

Cullen failed to appear at the post-match press conference and while the club refused to comment on speculation over his position, a spokesperson confirmed a statement would be issued this morning.

Cullen is the longest-serving coach in Super League having taken charge of his hometown club, whom he also represented 348 times as a player, in 2002.

He had been under pressure last season until an upturn in form earned him a new two-year contract in July.

Yet the Wolves have been among the competition’s bigger spenders in recent years and expectations were raised further during the close season with Australia star Matt King among their high-profile recruits.

Warrington started the season well with six Super League wins from eight but their form since has been inconsistent and the Castleford loss has left them outside the top six.

Cullen’s departure makes him would make him the second coaching casualty of the Super League season after Peter Sharp left Hull last week.

It also ends a long association with the club as a player, assistant coach and coach which began in 1980 and was interrupted only by a two-year spell as head coach at Whitehaven from 2000-02.

Assistant coach Jimmy Lowes said: "Paul is pretty peeved to be honest and talking to the lads about the performance. There is nothing sinister but he wants 10 or 15 minutes with the players.

"When teams get a roll on it’s difficult to stop them and if I knew the answers I would be a rich man.

"As professionals we have to move on but I can understand the fans’ frustrations. Things are not quite happening for us and we have to get our confidence back."

The Tigers, who remain three points adrift at the bottom, had seemed out of contention until their dramatic late rally.

Two tries from Chris Riley and further scores from Vinnie Anderson, Kevin Penny and Chris Hicks had put the Wolves in complete control.

But the Tigers refused to concede and late tries from Michael Wainwright, Stuart Donlan and Luke Dorn (two) turned the game on its head in the closing minutes.

Tigers coach Terry Matterson said: "Confidence has been low but we showed some real fight.

"I would have been happy with an ugly win but this was a really good win. The hungrier side won.

"I thought we could win even when we were down 28-14. I didn’t think we deserved to be facing that scoreline but everything was going their way at the time. We knew this was going to be a tough year but the boys have worked hard and we dug in defensively, which won us the game despite conceding 28 points."