'John Kear would have liked that': Daryl Powell's Wakefield Trinity produce fitting tribute amid 'carnage'
Daryl Powell felt Wakefield Trinity's dramatic late win over Hull KR was a fitting tribute to former head coach John Kear.
Trinity dug deep in the image of teams coached by Kear to find a way in an action-packed clash at Belle Vue.
With both sides down to 12 men following red cards for Matty Storton and Jesse Sue, Mason Lino's converted try earned Trinity a win that appeared to have slipped from their grasp.
"I think John would have liked that," said Powell.
"It was a tough game. Heaven only knows what was going on in the second half – or the first half, for that matter.
"To win it in the way we did, that was probably fitting of the day as a whole."
Wakefield broke the deadlock through Oli Pratt's try and led 16-6 just before half-time, only to let Rovers back in.
KR appeared to have stolen the points through Tyrone May's late try before Lino's last-gasp intervention.
Powell's joy was tempered by frustration over the performance of Aaron Moore and his fellow officials.
"I thought the referee lost his cool and I feel like that impacted on his decision-making," said the Trinity boss, who saw Lino sin-binned in the first half together with KR winger Joe Burgess.
"I was sending messages out to Mike (McMeeken, captain) to calm the ref down a bit because I just thought the game was carnage at one point."
Wakefield ultimately emerged with a 26-24 victory to add to KR's misery in the wake of their Wembley disappointment.
Willie Peters found positives despite back-to-back defeats.
"It could have got away but we found some fight which I’m proud of," said Peters.
"We put ourselves in a position to win that game. That's the disappointing part. There were some key moments we need to learn from."