Warrington Wolves 32

Hull Sharks 12

WARRINGTON Wolves stretched their unbeaten home record to more than two months with a comfortable victory over financially troubled Hull.

As the thunder rolled around Wilderspool and lightening sparked the darkened skies there was rarely any sight of such explosions on the field as Warrington ground out another important win.

And news that play-off rivals Gateshead had somehow pulled off a shock win over Wigan did little to lift the gloomy atmosphere.

But coach Darryl Van de Velde will take heart from another solid performance, and the professional manner in which they went about their task against a side ravaged by injuries and internal wranglings, who set out to spoil the game.

This new-found calmness was called upon in the very first minute of the game when referee Russell Smith, fresh from sending a man off after 90 seconds in the Leeds versus St. Helens match last week, sin-binned hooker David Highton for holding down in a tackle.

Smith, who yellow-carded five players in the Headingley match, was more reserved with his discipline and only despatched four to the bench.

But the Wolves kept their composure and dominated the early stages with Lee Briers landing his first of eight kicks at goal from as many attempts on five minutes from a penalty for stripping the ball out.

He added a second soon after from another penalty and following Highton's return, Warrington started to seriously pry open the Sharks defence.

On the back of some heavy pressure the visitors finally buckled as Simon Gillies switched the direction of play and Scott Wilson, back to his elusive best, probed for a chink in the Hull armour and beautifully weighted a pass into the arms of a charging Toa Kohe-Love, who stormed home.

What little pressure Wolves had to endure they coped with admirably, epitomised by Mark Forster's turn and chase after Andrew Purcell's chip over the top put him on the back foot.

The veteran winger outpaced Craig Poucher to the ball and managed to keep in play after sliding to control the ball.

Frustration started to tell on the yardless Hull forwards and Briers was given another simple two-pointer after Jim Leathem was put on report for using his knees in a tackle.

Paul Cooke started a mini-revival with a penalty on 23 minutes and David Baildon charged in for a try after a strong run from Logan Campbell to bring them back to within four points.

But the reaction was again to steady the ship and pile pressure on the Hull line before Briers' well-timed pass sent Mike Wainwright barging through two tacklers and over the line.

The second half started with the Sharks one man down after Jamie Smith saw yellow for interfering at a play-the-ball after a surging run from Kohe-Love and Briers added another penalty for the latest holding down offence as the extra man told.

Lee Penny earned his reward for a faultless display by latching on to Briers' pass to jink his way past two men on his way to his 10th try of the year.

He then pulled off a great ball-and-all tackle on Leathem as the big forward tried to release a try-making pass and ripped the ball from his grasp.

The superb tackle left Alan Hunte to pick up the loose ball and race 80 metres through the heart of the tired defence for another spectacular try.

Kohe-Love and Poucher became Smith's final victims as they were sent to cool their heels after setting about each other in a flurry of fists.

And Hull had the last word in the match as Richard Horne sent Jamie Smith racing down the left wing to squeeze past desperate challenges from Penny and Wilson.

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