SCENES of celebration such as the ones Warrington Wolves have enjoyed in this year’s Challenge Cup have been few and far between of late.

As such, Joe Philbin hopes the run to the Challenge Cup Final has gone some way to rebuilding the connection between the team and their fans.

Sam Burgess’ arrival as head coach has triggered an impressive revival at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, capped by the team booking their place at Wembley Stadium to face Wigan Warriors on June 8.

Sunday’s semi-final thrashing of Huddersfield Giants at the Totally Wicked Stadium followed an equally impressive quarter-final victory over well-fancied St Helens on the same ground, and hometown hero Philbin was delighted to repay the fans.

“It’s been a bad two years – there’s no getting away from that,” he told the Guardian post-match.

“We weren’t happy as players and we know the fans weren’t happy. It’s a relationship like any other and we did have to rebuild it, but its well underway.

“The fans were awesome – those scenes behind the posts are the kind of scenes you play for. The Aussie boys were loving that!

“We’ve been on a journey as a team and I think there’s been growth every week, from the start of pre-season in November to now. This is just part of that journey.

“A lot of things came together for us today – we’ve got an exciting few weeks ahead of us and we don’t want to get carried away, but that was special.”

A red-hot start saw The Wire go 12-0 up inside the first 10 minutes of the semi-final, and it was a deficit Huddersfield never really got close to reeling in.

Eight tries were scored in all, but it was the work without the ball that pleased those in the Wire camp the most.

“I think nailed our plan and defensively at least, I think was the best we have nailed our plan,” Philbin said.

“You know what’s coming from them, but the hard thing is dealing with it and we dealt with it very well.

“The talk was very good about what was coming our way – they shift the ball a lot and they’ve got strike on the edges, but we dealt with it.

“We stuck to our plan and then we’re so blessed to have some special players who have got some pace as the sprinkling on top of the cake.

“Everything we do is based around effort – that’s what gets Sam’s juices flowing.

“We’ve got the star quality to make special things happen, but they don’t happen without the effort plays.

“Everyone’s bought into Sam’s way and it’s feeling good. When you get the evidence that its working, you buy into it even more.

“We’re on a journey and where that journey takes us, we’ll wait and see but I’m really enjoying it.”

Now, Philbin and his teammates can look forward to a trip to the national stadium – and the Warringtonian powerhouse has experienced both sides of how that voyage can end.

He has been on both the winning and losing side of a Challenge Cup Final, scoring a try in the memorable 2019 win over St Helens a year after being part of the team beaten by Catalans Dragons while he was also a non-playing squad member for the 2016 Wembley loss to Hull FC.

The clash with neighbours Wigan is a mouth-watering one, and one the 29-year-old is relishing.

“There’s two different weekends – one when you win, another when you lose,” he said.

“We’re going up against a champion team in Wigan but you want to play against the best.

“We’re licking our lips at the prospect of going up against them and it should be a great game.”