Wakefield head coach Chris Chester insisted he “couldn’t be any prouder” of his side despite an agonising defeat to Hull FC.
Trinity went down 19-18 to Hull FC on Thursday, with Liam Finn’s missed drop-goal 20 seconds from time condemning them to defeat.
The result leaves Wakefield’s play-off hopes out of their own hands, with Chester and co now needing Castleford to defeat Wigan on Sunday to keep their aspirations alive going into the final round.
However, despite being evidently disappointed, Chester admitted he couldn’t be happier with his side’s efforts this year.
“I couldn’t be any prouder,” he said.
“We’ve been on a fantastic journey and it looks like that journey is going to end tonight. We committed suicide that second-half, Hull made one mistake and completed at 94%, we were around the 63% mark.
“We’re learning, just not learning quick enough. Our ball control was pretty poor in the second-half. That first five or eight minutes of that second-half we kept dropping the ball. Hull took advantage of that.”
Chester was, however, left frustrated with Marc Sneyd’s decisive drop-goal, with the Trinity head coach claiming there was an infringement off the ball in the build-up.
“I remember when we got beat against Cas at home, we lost to a drop goal and Steve Ganson said to me if there’s any kind of obstruction the ref should go to the screen for the one point. Tinirau Arona or one of our players got taken out and couldn’t put any pressure on Marc Sneyd and he gets a free shot at goal.
“Some of the decisions tonight were mind-boggling. I thought we got some real rough calls but that’s for me to speak to Steve about.
“I’m just disappointed that the top four hopes have gone on a couple of them kind of decisions.”