Super League's form team, Warrington Wolves played host to a Wakefield Trinity side who recorded two losses over the Easter period to end a three game unbeaten run. Wakefield could leapfrog the Catalans Dragons to take sixth spot in the league while a home victory would lift them level on points with St. Helens in eighth.
Tony Smith welcomed back Atkins, Brown and Russell but would have to make do without Westerman and Toby King who were both injured. Trinity coach Chris Chester was without the services of Allgood and Ashurst but did have Williams and Batchelor available for selection.
Warrington had the better of the opening exchanges but it was Trinity who opened the scoring on seven minutes when a charge down was picked up by Kyle Wood who put boot to ball with a delightful cross field grubber which bounced nicely in to the arms of Ashley Gibson to walk in. Liam Finn added the extra two.
Within two minutes Mason Caton-Brown took a Miller pass to go twenty to score under the sticks. Finn was again accurate with the boot for 12-0 with ten minutes on the clock.
On thirteen the Wolves had a Ryan Atkins try ruled out by the video referee for offside. On twenty-one Ryan Atkins brushed off the attempted tackles to go forty metres down the wing off a Stefan Ratchford pass to improve the angle and give Declan Patton a simple conversion.
On thirty-two it was Trinity's turn to have a try ruled out by the video referee after Thomas Johnstone was adjudged to have knocked on in picking up the bouncing ball.
Four minutes from the interval Trinity extended their lead by a two point Finn penalty after Kevin Brown was penalised for being offside after a high kick ricocheted off a colleague.
Five minutes after the restart Trinity gave the ball some air and Johnstone flew down the wing off a miss-out pass from Jacob Miller. There was no need to refer to the video referee as Ben Thaler pointed to the spot. Finn added the extras for a fourteen point lead and it was no more than Trinity deserved.
The Wolves hit double figures on fifty-six when Chris Hill barged his way to the line after his colleagues had kept the ball alive probing the Trinity defence. Patton added the extras for 12-20.
With eleven minutes left on the clock Kevin Brown threw a dummy and paced past two defenders to coast over the line for the four pointer. Patton again kicked the extras and the margin was down to two points at 18-20.
Entering the last ten with just two points separating the teams, the game was on a knife edge.
With the clock showing seventy-eight minutes Tom Lineham took the points for the Wolves when he flew in by the left corner flag after the ball had been passed from right to left, the final long pass from Ratchford. Patton missed the conversion attempt but his side had a 22-20 win in a game they'd not lead until the dying seconds.
Warrington will count themselves lucky to have picked the Trinity pocket and taken the two points. Wakefield and their supporters will go home feeling like they've lost a pound and found a penny. It was a good performance and at 20-6 just after half-time they would have believed that they'd got the game won. It was a tenacious fightback by the Wolves who have now amassed nine points in the last five games and are creeping up on the top eight place that their supporters demand.
Wolves: Ratchford, Evans, Livett, Atkins (T), Lineham (T), Patton (3G), Gidley, Hill (T), Dwyer, Sims, Jullien, Hughes, Westerman. Subs: Philbin, Brown (T), Savelio, King G..
Trinity: Jowitt, Jones-Bishop, Gibson (T), Caton-Brown (T), Johnstone (T), Miller, Finn (4G), England, Wood, Fifita, Hadley, Kirmond, Arona. Subs: Williams, Batchelor, Hirst, Huby.
Referee: Ben Thaler.
Half-Time: 6-14.
Full-Time: 22-20.
Attendance: 9,152.
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