Wolves hold Cats at bay

Ryan Atkins: a walk-in try against his old club

Warrington were made to battle every inch of the way by Wakefield as they retained their unbeaten home record with a 32-30 victory.

The Wildcats would have gone away with a draw and ended a four-match losing streak against the Wolves had Isaac John been able to convert Vince Mellars' try six minutes from time.

Richard Agar's men were ahead until the hour and led 26-22 before Simon Grix's converted try fired Warrington in front.

It was a gutsy effort by the Cats who have now lost five matches in a row since their win at Widnes on the opening day of the season.

Warrington made a sloppy start with a poor pass from Michael Monaghan allowing Wakefield to press with John slipping Richie Myler's tackle for Danny Washbrook to stroll over.

John landed the conversion before Wolves skipper Adrian Morley lost the ball close to the Cats line.

But Warrington levelled on the back of three successive penalties with Trent Waterhouse charging through John, Peter Fox and Danny Kirmond to give Ryan Atkins a walk-in try against his old club with Lee Briers adding the goal.

Ben Cockayne shot through the Wolves defence but lacked support and another Warrington mistake proved costly.

Kyle Wood robbed Atkins of possession with the Cats sub then sending Isaac John diving over to stretch the lead to 12-6 after 24 minutes.

It became worse for Warrington on the half hour when ex-Wolves full-back Richie Mathers dummied his way over with John adding his third conversion.

Myler's try from Ben Cooper's smart pass cut the gap to 18-12, but the scrum half missed a chance to grab a second try when he fumbled the ball over the line from Rhys Williams' kick.

High tackle

Wakefield stretched the interval lead to 20-12 with a John penalty when Paul Wood was sin-binned for a high tackle on Paul Johnson.

Warrington overcame the handicap of being down to 12 men for Myler to take another Cooper pass to race clear for his second try almost straight from the restart but Briers missed the kick.

The Wolves joy was short-lived with Ali Lauitiiti charging over for Wakefield with John maintaining his 100% record with the boot to extend the lead to 26-16.

The try-fest continued when Briers was provider for Ben Westwood to reduce the arrears to 26-22.

Mathers saved a try by plucking the ball from Waterhouse's grasp after a neat Briers kick as Warrington stepped up the pressure.

The Wolves went ahead for the first time on the hour when Myler's kick rebounded off a defender for Grix to touch down, with Briers adding the goal to make it 28-26.

Joel Monaghan scored in the corner after 66 minutes to extend the lead to 32-26 but Wakefield refused to concede defeat.

Chris Riley failed to collect a kick for Mellars to cross in the corner with John narrowly short with the conversion attempt.