AFTER last Sunday’s 52-6 defeat at Castleford you said it was your worst day as a coach, did you consider your future at the club?

I think that is something that you always think about and if the team doesn’t try then you have got to look at that.

Sometimes individuals have bad games, or there is some poor form in the team, but if a playing group doesn’t put in an effort then there is an issue.

I have to say that I thought we had addressed our form a couple of weeks ago when we got a good win against London and then lost to a strong Hull FC team due to our own error at the end of the game.

But when people don’t put in an effort you have got to try and work out why and then move forward.

While I have been at the club we have always gone out to ‘out-work’ and ‘out-enthuse’ sides and we have done that to great effect on a lot of occasions against clubs with much more talented playing rosters than ours.

So we have had to discover the underlying problem and move forward.

Have you found that problem?

I'll tell you on Sunday!

You stand just 80 minutes away from a return visit to Wembley, that must be plenty of motivation?

Everyone has the same dream at the start of the competition to get to the cup final.

Obviously the competition has a very special place in the English game, it carries a lot of history.

Fortunately for us we are one of the four teams who have the chance to go and win it.

Since winning the quarter-final against London in May the form of the side has slumped, is that a major concern going into the semi-final?

One of the great things about the Challenge Cup is that it doesn’t really matter what our form has been either last week, the week before or even the week before that.

There are no points for and against or tables involved, it is all about what happens in one game.

That is why this competition has produced famous results like Sheffield beating Wigan. Knockout footy means there can be upsets.

It is a different competition to the league and as a group of players we have to be up for that one game – the past form is really irrelevant.

We could go into this game having won our last eight games or lost the last eight, but what matters is that we focus on this one game and ensure that we play well.

Facing Warrington in big matches appears to be a recurring theme during your tenure as Giants coach?

We have had some good battles with Warrington over recent seasons.

We have had quite a few run-ins and we have both won games and obviously they beat us in the Cup final at Wembley three years ago.

But generally it is a pretty friendly kind of rivalry and I think the two sides enjoy playing each other.

They play a good style of footy, as we always try to do, and we are well aware that they have got good players right across the park.

You look at them and a lot of their guys are internationals or they have played in Grand Finals, so we know exactly what the challenge is.

It pits you against former Giants coach Tony Smith once again, does it come down to mind games?

It is not so much mind games with Tony.

But I know that Tone will have something up his sleeve tactically to try and test us, as we will ourselves.

Tone always likes to try and find something that he thinks will give them the advantage in the game, like all good coaches do, but I have known him a long time.

We have played together, coached sides against each other plenty of times and you just know that you are always going to be in for a good challenge.