St Helens 20-22 Wakefield

Correspondent

Paul Wellens cost St Helens a last minute draw by missing a penalty goal to give John Kear’s Wakefield side a much needed victory as they continue their play-off aspirations and avoided another last minute heartbreaker.

Despite outscoring the Wildcats five tries to four, Wellens missed all succeeding conversions plus the last minute penalty that would have levelled matters to leave Saints hanging onto their position at the pinnacle of the Super League table precariously.

The home side began the better and got their rewards when Ade Gardner crossed in the corner, but Wakefield soon hit back when a mistake in defence led to Ryan Atkins picking the ball up and running 75 metres to score under the Saints’ posts. Danny Brough added on the conversion to give Wakefield the advantage.

But Saints were soon back in front when a good passing move enabled young centre Chris Dean to score, and that lead was further extended minutes later when Leon Pryce found a gap to slide over in the wet conditions.

Wakefield’s deficit did not last long though, and they were soon on equal parity when Sam Obst danced his way over to score, Brough once more kicking to equal matters.

Scott Grix grabbed Wakefield’s third and fourth tries respectively, sandwiched around Francis Meli‘s effort as Saints pulled level once more.

But Danny Brough converted Grix’s second to give Wakefield a six point advantage, a feat that meant Saints had to score twice based on Wellens’ kicking to get any hope of pulling anything out of the game.

Dean did that once more when he dived over with ten minutes remaining, but despite keeping Saints penned in their own half for the remaining minutes they were not to break the Wildcats’ hearts once more, despite their last chance penalty effort.