Wakefield 26-12 Warrington: Trinity back to winning way against struggling Wolves

Match stats: Wakefield 26-12 Warrington

Wakefield tries: Tupou (21), Jones-Bishop (37), Wood (50), Caton-Brown (74)
Wakefield goals: Finn (8, 22, 26, 50, 75) 

Warrington tries: Dwyer (12), Hill (55)
Warrington goals: Ratchford (13, 56) 

Match report

Wakefield returned to winning ways with a gritty 26-12 victory that keeps them in touch with the top four and leaves Warrington deep in trouble at the other end of the Betfred Super League table.

A 12th defeat of the season leaves last year's league leaders' shield winners three points adrift of the top eight with just three games left before the Super 8s and almost certainly consigns them to a relegation fight in the Qualifiers.

Trinity were far from their best but, after losing their three previous matches, coach Chris Chester will be delighted with their resolve which keeps alive their semi-final hopes.

Acting captain Liam Finn gave Wakefield an early lead with the first of two penalties but Warrington hooker Brad Dwyer scored the game's first try when he dummied his way over for a 13th-minute score, which was converted by Stefan Ratchford, who slotted into the stand-off role on his return from suspension after Dec Patton failed a late fitness test on his leg injury.

Trinity then survived a scare when Wolves winger Kevin Penny intercepted Dean Hadley's pass on halfway, and they regained the lead midway through the first half when hooker Kyle Wood squeezed a pass out of the tackle for centre Bill Tupou to race over for the first of their four tries.

New Zealand international Peta Hiku went desperately close to marking his Super League debut with a try after 29 minutes, only to be denied by a last-ditch tackle from Tupou.

Wakefield missed a glorious chance to extend their lead when they failed to take advantage of a Penny fumble 10 metres out from his own line.

However, the home side duly added a second try three minutes before the break when Jones-Bishop collected a cut-out pass from stand-off Sam Williams to register his 16th try of the season and a 14-6 lead was nothing less than they deserved.

Warrington coach Tony Smith was forced to re-shuffle his team early in the second half after 18-year-old full-back Will Dagger was carried off on a stretcher following lengthy treatment on the pitch, with Jack Hughes moving from the pack to centre and Hiku switching to full-back.

And things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Wood bamboozled their defence to dummy his way over from acting half-back on 49 minutes and Finn kicked his fourth goal to open up a 14-point lead.

The Wolves were given a helping hand on 52 minutes when Wakefield prop Keegan Hirst was sin-binned for a "crusher" tackle on Daryl Clark and they took advantage of the extra man, with Kurt Gidley getting skipper Chris Hill striding through a gap in the defence for their second try.

Ratchford added the conversion and the score breathed new life into their attack but Trinity survived two team warnings to keep their line attack and clinched victory when Hadley got an unmarked Mason Caton-Brown over six minutes from the end, with Finn kicking his fifth goal from six attempts.

Match reaction

Warrington coach Tony Smith on possibly having to play in the Qualifiers:  "It's unlikely, isn't it? [finishing in the top eight] There would have to be some real twists and turns for that to happen. If we don't make it we'll roll sleeves up and get on with it."

On Warrington's overall display: "It was pretty nip and tuck in that first half. They maximised their luck. The thing that really hurt us was that they had five seven-tackle re-starts and, while that doesn't sound much, throw a penalty or two on top of that and it starts to mount. Our last plays weren't good enough this week. I thought our goal-line defence was pretty good in the first half but it took its toll and cost us in terms of energy and affected our decision-making.

"But I don't want to take too much away form Wakefield, who are a good team and work hard for each other. I would have liked us to have asked a few more questions but they handled what we threw at them today."

On the debut of former New Zealand international Peta Hiku: "It was the first footy he's played for a while and I thought he handled it pretty well. He was a bit unfortunate to get the ball bumped out when he got to the line. He showed some good signs, he's a positive."

On 18-year-old Will Dagger being carried off on a stretcher following lengthy treatment on the pitch for a neck injury: "We're hoping he's going to be okay. "We won't know for sure until he gets to hospital, but we're positive."

Wakefield coach Chris Chester on ending a three-match losing run: "It's a really important win. It keeps us in touch with the top four. I'm pleased for the players who have been working hard and it's nice to get a result at home because it's been a while.

"I'm pleased for the boss as well. He's invested a lot of money into the club over the last three or four years and it would be nice to get into the top four for Michael (Carter).

"It's about trying to build momentum going into the Super 8s and we'll take a lot of confidence out of today's performance. Defensively we were pretty good tonight, our middle unit was very aggressive and pretty dominant."