Round 23
Salford City Reds 24 l. Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 30

2009 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Wakefield return to winning ways
Sat August 1, 2009
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Wakefield Wildcats returned to winning ways as they ran out 30-24 winners in their engage Super League clash with Salford Reds at The Willows.

Both sides were looking to bounce back from defeats in their previous outings but it was the latter who came out on top courtesy of some clinical finishing at crucial times.

Five tries from Oliver Wilkes, Sean Gleeson, Michael Korkidas, Scott Grix and Dale Ferguson, plus five goals from the boot of Danny Brough, proved enough to see the West Yorkshire club to victory.

Two-try efforts from Dean McGilvray and Phil Leuluai were in vain though as Wakefield survived a late rally with ease.

Wakefield opened the scoring in the eighth minute. First scrum-half Brough and then winger Gleeson attempted to angle a grubber kick through and it was the latter's which found its way into the hands of Wilkes who showed a good turn of pace to touch down.

The Wildcats helped themselves to their second of the evening two minutes later as Ferguson spotted a gap in the Salford defence and motored his way straight through it. Salford full-back Wilshere closed him down but Ferguson played a simple pass to his right and Gleeson crossed the whitewash.

Brough again added the extras as Wakefield took a 12-point lead.

Robbie Paul came off the bench and put himself about and a score for Salford finally came in the 32nd minute.

The ball was worked from left to right and just as it seemed as though winger McGilvray had been halted in his tracks he somehow forced his way over the line and touched down.

Wilshere hit a difficult conversion from the right touchline and then slotted a penalty between the sticks two minutes before the break to cut the gap to just four points.

But no sooner had Wakefield got the ball back than they swept downfield and former Salford player Korkidas bulldozed his way over just to the right of the posts.

Salford conceded again in the 44th minute when the Wildcats decided to keep the ball alive on the last tackle and spin it wide.

Winger Grix took the ball at speed and managed to squeeze his way over in the corner despite the best efforts of a couple of Reds defenders. Brough, presented with a difficult conversion attempt from the touchline, sent it well wide.

Just five minutes later Wakefield's lead grew to 20 points when Ferguson forced his way over the line following yet another prolonged period of possession in the Reds' half. This time Brough was on target in adding the extras.

McGilvray gave the hosts hope in the 54th minute when he did well to stretch for the line before the Wakefield defence could get across, but a penalty from Brough left the score at 30-12.

Salford did try to muster some sort of response and got to within a few metres of the Wakefield try-line on a couple of occasions but just lacked a cutting edge.

Salford added two further converted tries through replacement Leuluai, who bulldozed his way over for the first and then took a Wilshere chip-kick on his way to the line for his second.

But despite the late rally which saw Wilshere convert both tries, the game had already been won.

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