Mark Applegarth bemoans Wakefield Trinity drop off: ‘I don’t know if we’ve just fallen in love with ourselves riding a couple of good wins’

Wakefield Trinity boss Mark Applegarth spoke openly following a disappointing showing in defeat to Huddersfield Giants last night, admitting his side may have ‘fallen in love with themselves’.

Trinity headed to the John Smith’s Stadium on the back of four successive victories which had seen them claw their way back into contention for survival.

The most recent of which came euphorically via golden point against Wigan Warriors at Belle Vue. And after a first defeat in five, which saw his side register just one consolation try through Samisoni Langi, Applegarth explained a possible reason for the dramatic drop off.

Wakefield Trinity were riding the crest of a wave

The head coach said: “I don’t know if we’ve just fallen in love with ourselves riding a couple of good wins, but we’ve forgotten the basics of the game [tonight].

“I thought we were outplayed from minute one. It hurts because we thought we were going to play a lot better than that and there’s a lot of disappointed bodies in the changing room.

“It’s really important that we stick together. We’ve not shown up tonight and hopefully we will use it as a re-focus in the eight games coming up.”

Mark Applegarth on playing the waiting game

Huddersfield’s victory pulled the Giants eight points clear of Trinity, and of relegation. Accordingly, the battle to avoid the drop now looks likely to be a two-team shootout between Wakefield and Castleford Tigers.

The Tigers sit two points above Applegarth’s side, and weren’t in action until this afternoon away at Hull FC. Wakefield’s chief expressed his disappointment at having to hope other teams are able to do them favours.

Applegarth added: “I hate the fact that we’ve still got to rely on somebody else to slip up, but we will focus on ourselves.

“There are still 16 points to play for, and we are looking no further than our next match against Warrington.”

As it turned out, Castleford were beaten 36-18 at the MKM Stadium, and suffered a third straight defeat of their own. Both they and Wakefield have two more games to play out before facing each other in front of the Sky Sports cameras, as confirmed earlier this week.

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