WAKEFIELD TRINITY suffered an almighty scare at home to the York Knights in the semi-final of the Championship play-offs.
Trinity eventually ran out 22-13 winners, but they were made to work extremely hard for the victory as Mark Applegarth returned to Belle Vue to almost inflict a remarkable defeat on Daryl Powell and Trinity.
Trinity were wasteful early on as a number of chances went begging, but the writing was on the wall and a brilliant Jermaine McGillvary run saw the winger feed Max Jowitt on his inside for a simple run to the sticks. Jowitt converted for a 6-0 lead after ten minutes.
It was York’s first foray into the Wakefield that saw the visitors hit back in a brilliant fashion on 15 minutes – and totally against the run of play.
A superb Nikau Williams break laid the platform for Liam Harris to send over Oli Field, much to the jubilation of the travelling Knights support. Will Dagger converted to level the scores at 6-6.
Wakefield, shellshocked, were determined to hit back shortly after, and, after forcing a drop-out, Powell’s men should have had their second but Jowitt knocked on with the whitewash begging.
McGillvary – who will retire at the end of the season – was running York ragged with devastating runs, but the hosts were careless as Josh Griffin dropped a clanger on the Knights’ left edge.
Pressure just could not turn into points for Wakefield with Jowitt this time floating an outrageously-forward pass out to Olpherts when the hosts looked certain to score.
Griffin left the field moments later in agony as Harris slotted over a drop goal on the hooter with York leading incredibly at half-time, 7-6.
It was about eighth time lucky for Trinity nine minutes in when a rampaging Ashurst broke through, and he sent Luke Gale over off a wonderful pass. Jowitt converted to make it 12-7.
But, Wakefield were breached on the hour when Hingano crashed over following a magnificent Jordan Thompson break down the middle. Dagger’s conversion sent the Knights into a 13-12 lead with a quarter of the game left.
Hingano forced another drop-out moments later, but it was Trinity that reclaimed the lead with 15 to go.
A tremendous Gale bomb was allowed to bounce by York as Oliver Pratt regathered and offloaded to the supporting Olpherts. Jowitt couldn’t convert with Wakefield now 16-13 up.
And victory was secured five minutes from time with Thornley dotting down a Liam Hood grubber with York tiring. Jowitt’s conversion rounded off the scoring at 22-13 – but it was far from the comprehensive Trinity performance or result most people predicted in front of 5,946 supporters.
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