Warrington 28-35 Wigan: Warriors spoil Wolves' night
By PA
Last Updated: 17/09/16 8:18am
Wigan Warriors pulled back a 14-point deficit with a man disadvantage to earn a 28-35 victory over Warrington Wolves on Friday.
The Warriors' victory means that the quest for the League Leaders' Shield goes on and Warrington are left to ponder on what might have been.
The Wolves looked to have wrapped up the trophy, which was made ready for presentation at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, when Flower was sent off for a late tackle on Warrington half-back Declan Patton on 56 minutes.
Warrington were already holding a 28-14 lead but the 12-man Warriors battled back with three tries in 14 minutes through wingers Josh Charnley and Lewis Tierney to tie the scores.
Matty Smith then edged his side in front with five minutes to go and, as the home side pushed for victory, centre Anthony Gelling settled a pulsating affair with an interception try.
Warrington still lead by a point and will finish top if they beat second-placed Hull at the KCOM Stadium next Friday, while Wigan look to have earned themselves a home semi-final with a second successive late fightback following their heroics against Hull a week earlier.
Beaten twice in the regular season by their hosts, Wigan made the perfect start with Tierney taking George Williams' cut-out pass to cross for the first try after only 90 seconds.
Warrington could not get their hands on the ball in the first 10 minutes and Smith extended Wigan's lead with two penalties.
Wigan also had a try by hooker Sam Powell disallowed and, to rub salt in their wound, he was forced off with concussion, leaving substitute Jake Shorrocks to take on the dummy-half role for the next 74 minutes.
The home side gradually grew into the game and pulled a try back on 24 minutes when prop Ashton Sims was the first to reach Kurt Gidley's high kick and knocked the ball back for Patton to fire out a long pass for winger Matty Russell to touch down at the corner.
Warrington looked to be harshly treated when Stefan Ratchford was shown a yellow card for what referee Robert Hicks ruled to be a cynical late tackle on Tierney, but they responded well.
Centre Toby King made the running for Gidley's try on 32 minutes and older brother George got Hill charging through a wrong-footed Wigan defence for his side's third touchdown three minutes later.
Two conversions from Patton made it 16-8 but the Warriors struck on the stroke of half-time when full-back Sam Tomkins burrowed his way over from dummy half.
Smith's third goal cut the deficit to just two points but Wigan paid a big price for conceding six penalties in a row and, restored to their full complement, Warrington were quickly back on the attack at the start of the second half.
It took them only five minutes to increase their lead, the influential Gidley putting Westerman through a hole in the Warriors defence, and four minutes later he repeated the feat to get second rower Ben Currie over.
Patton added both conversions to make it 28-14 and, although Tierney had a second try disallowed for a forward pass, there seemed no way back for Wigan when they were permanently reduced to 12 men with the dismissal of Flower.
Just as their opponents played their best football while down to 12 men, Wigan responded magnificently with two tries in five minutes from former England winger Charnley.
When Tomkins' long pass got Tierney over for his second try, awarded by video referee Ben Thaler after a series of slow-motion replays, the scores were level but Wigan had all the momentum in the closing stages and it paid off with a memorable victory.
