Wakefield boss Chris Chester issues job warning to players after Saints mauling

Correspondent

Wakefield coach Chris Chester has threatened players with the sack after their 48-6 Super League defeat by St Helens.

A week after pushing the champions all the way before going down 20-16 at Headingley, Trinity were swept aside by them before the break at Warrington, where they trailed 30-0 after conceding six first half tries.READ: St Helens 48-6 Wakefield: Tommy Makinson hat-trick helps Saints beat Trinity

“I need to have a look at that first half,” Chester said. “We spoke all week about trying to do a job on (Alex) Walmsley and he caused us some damage.

“We were a bit soft through the middle third. They were a lot tougher than us and ran harder than us.

“The game was lost at half-time and it sums our season up. We’re consistently inconsistent. We showed last week that we can compete but we came up with an inept performance tonight.”

Chester singled out Matty Ashurst, Tom Johnstone, Kelepi Tanginoa and Jack Croft for praise but warned that other players may have played themselves out of the team.

“It’s a simple fix,” Chester said. “We just bring in better quality players and that’s what we’ll be looking at doing tomorrow.

“There are players that played tonight who are off-contract and some players that played who are under contract who could find themselves under a lot of pressure.

“We’re all fighting for our jobs. We’re going to have to make some tough calls.

“On the flip side, I think there were eight or nine busting a gut but quite a few who are letting their mates down.

“If there was relegation, we would be under even more pressure.

“We’ve got to go for quality over quantity, that’s why we’re looking for a top class half-back and a top class outside-back. It sounds simple but it’s a difficult fix as well because it has lots to do with the budget.

“But the performance tonight wasn’t good enough. It’s just not acceptable.”

 

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