Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 28

Warrington Wolves 40

A REMARKABLE team effort in overcoming hurdles earned Warrington Wolves their biggest win at Wakefield for 18 years on Sunday.

Pre-match plans were disrupted when hooker Mark Gleeson withdrew from the game with a stomach bug three hours before kick-off.

Head coach Paul Cullen said a few others suffered symptons of illness during the game, while Ben Westwood climbed out of his sickbed to play after not training all week due to tonsilitis.

Then a shaky start, including conceding a try to centre Kevin King after 95 seconds, left Wolves 16-4 behind and with a mountain to climb.

But a fantastic rally of free-flowing football, with Lee Briers and Martin Gleeson leading the way, led to Wolves scoring 36 unanswered points in a 39-minute spell to complete a first away win since last August at Salford.

Head coach Paul Cullen applauded his team's work in maintaining the necessary composure to override the negatives and he included a reference to the team's progress since the dreadful display against Salford on 'Good' Friday.

Wolves have won three league games on the bounce since then and Cullen said: "We've not had a roll of wins for a considerable period and we've worked very hard from our lowest point against Salford to be now hitting some good form on the back of it.

"That shows the quality of the work, the technique, the tactic and the character of all concerned."

Cullen also commented that it was Wolves' adventurous brand of rugby that broke Wakefield's considerable spirit.

There were no suggestions of a hangover from five defeats in six outings or any signs of missing the injured Sid Domic or David Solomona as Wakefield dominated around the ruck area to go 12 points clear by the 23rd-minute mark.

But Wolves got to grips with their early defensive deficiencies and cut down on costly penalties so that they could cross for three tries in 10 minutes and turn around 18-16 ahead.

Scoring the first try of the second half was going to be crucial and it was fitting that outstanding skipper Briers started and finished the move that crucially put Wolves eight points clear.

Briers was off the mark with his goalkicking but crossed for two tries and helped to engineer five of the six others.

Wolves had to be on their guard on a rare Wakefield sortie into Wolves territory, and it ended with a superb try-saving tackle by Danny Lima on David Wrench that allowed Wolves to build on their domination.

Three minutes later impressive Westwood crossed for his second try against his former club and Wolves were not in the mood to throw away table-climbing points from that position.

Match facts

Engage Super League X, Round 10, April 17, 2005

Wakefield Wildcats 28

Warrington Wolves 40

Wildcats: Mark Field; Sylvain Houles, Jason Demetriou, Kevin King, Semi Tadulala; Julian O'Neill, Ben Jeffries; Darrell Griffin, Sam Obst, Michael Korkidas, Olivier Elima, Mark Applegarth, Jamie Field. Subs used: David March, David Wrench, Steve Snitch, Andy Kirk.

Wolves: Brent Grose; Henry Fa'afili, Martin Gleeson, Toa Kohe-Love, Graham Appo; Lee Briers, Nathan Wood; Chris Leikvoll, Jon Clarke, Mark Hilton, Ben Westwood, Mike Wainwright, Paul Noone. Subs used: Chris Bridge, Paul Wood, Danny Lima, Steve Pickersgill.

Referee: Ronnie Laughton

Scoring: King powers over from Korkidas' quick play-the-ball, 95secs, 4-0; Gleeson break leads to Briers feeding Westwood for bullocking charge to line, 17mins, 4-4; Tadulala darts and puts Jeffries over, 21mins, O'Neill converts, 10-4; Obst dances clear and Snitch sends Jeffries away, 23mins, O'Neill goals, 16-4; Briers intercepts and two tackles later Wainwright crashes over, 27mins, 16-8; Nathan Wood receives Wainwright pass and steps inside Snitch to touch down, 35mins, 16-12; Gleeson's weaving run sets up Clarke to put Briers between posts, 37mins, Briers goals, 16-18; Gleeson and Westwood combine before handing over to Briers for his second try, 44mins, Briers lands conversion, 16-24; Briers' short ball enables Westwood to power over, 50mins, 16-28; Nathan Wood keeps ball alive and Grose slips Clarke across the line, 62mins, Briers hits mark, 16-34; Paul Wood and Briers combine to allow Gleeson to cleverly off-load for Fa'afili to dive over, Bridge converts from touchline, 16-40; Jeffries' pass to Elima splits Wolves defence and supporting Applegarth scores, 73mins, O'Neill kicks bonus points, 22-40; Elima scores consolation try, 79mins, O'Neill converts, 28-40.

Penalties:

Wildcats 9 Wolves 5

Scrums:

Wildcats 2 Wolves 6

Attendance: 5,129

Warrington Guardian top men: Martin Gleeson 3pts, Lee Briers 2pts, Ben Westwood 1pt.

Interesting note: Warrington Wolves' previous Super League win at Wakefield was Darryl Van de Velde's last game in charge on July 29, 2001.

Results and fixtures

Other Round 10 results: Bradford 54 Huddersfield 10, Leigh 22 Hull 22, London 20 St Helens 30, Widnes 6 Salford 22, Wigan 14 Leeds 38.

Engage Super League Round 11 fixtures, tomorrow, Friday: Bradford v Wigan (Sky 8pm), Salford v Leigh. Saturday: Widnes v Leeds (Sky 6.05pm). Sunday: Huddersfield v St Helens, Wakefield v London, Wolves v Hull (3pm).

Table to date

P W D L F A Pt

Leeds 10 9 0 1 406 142 18

St Helens 10 8 0 2 364 201 16

Hull 10 6 1 3 249 218 13

Bradford 10 5 0 5 317 257 10

Wigan 10 5 0 5 245 207 10

Salford 10 5 0 5 184 191 10

Huddersfield 10 5 0 5 236 270 10

Warrington 10 5 0 5 225 260 10

London 10 4 0 6 302 266 8

Wakefield 10 4 0 6 247 356 8

Widnes 10 2 0 8 184 386 4

Leigh 10 1 1 8 168 373 3

Story so far

Apps T G Dg Pts TM

1 Brent Grose 11 3 0 0 12 2

2 Henry Fa'afili 11 7 0 0 28 0

3 Martin Gleeson 11 7 0 0 28 4

4 Toa Kohe-Love 9 1 0 0 4 1

5 Dean Gaskell 9 0 0 0 0 0

6 Lee Briers 11 5 25 1 71 12

7 Nathan Wood 6 6 0 0 24 2

8 Chris Leikvoll 6+1 0 0 0 0 0

9 Jon Clarke 11 7 0 0 28 5

10 Mark Hilton 10 1 0 0 4 6

11 Logan Swann 6 0 0 0 0 4

12 Mike Wainwright 11 2 0 0 8 6

13 Paul Noone 2+2 0 0 0 0 0

14 Mark Gleeson 8+2 0 0 0 0 9

15 Ben Westwood 9+2 5 0 0 20 10

16 Paul Wood 1+4 0 0 0 0 0

17 Danny Lima 2+8 0 0 0 0 0

18 Graham Appo 4+5 1 0 0 4 0

19 Daryl Cardiss 0 0 0 0 0 0

20 Warren Stevens 0+6 0 0 0 0 0

21 Simon Grix 0 0 0 0 0 0

22 Steve Pickersgill 0+3 0 0 0 0 0

23 Andrew Bracek 0+5 0 0 0 0 0

25 Chris Bridge 4+1 1 6 0 16 5

26 Nicky Royle 0 0 0 0 0 0