Daryl Powell branded Wakefield Trinity's effort "unforgivable" after watching his Super League title hopefuls collapse to a 46-16 defeat against St Helens.

Trinity overcame the early loss of Josh Rourke (knee) and Isaiah Vagana (shoulder) to lead 16-12 at half-time, only to ship 34 unanswered points in another damaging result.

The home side conceded four tries in the final 11 minutes, prompting Powell to question their attitude.

"There was a lack of effort almost at the end, which is unforgivable," said the Wakefield boss, whose team surrendered a big lead in their previous game against Leeds Rhinos.

"It's really disappointing. The second half last week and the whole game today, I just don't think we're in a great place.

"We didn't perform well. We took a smack on the nose last week and haven't recovered from that this week. They were desperate and outplayed us. I don't think our fight was good enough.

"The last 10 minutes were as bad as I've seen from the team since I've been here. I haven't seen us fold like we did in that last 10 minutes."

Wakefield have been in a battle with Leeds and Wigan Warriors for a top-two spot but are now in danger of limping into the play-offs.

Wakefield lost heavily on Saturday night. (Photo: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

placeholder image — Wakefield lost heavily on Saturday night. (Photo: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

Powell, who confirmed that Rourke, Vagana and Tom Johnstone (knee) are all facing scans, has challenged his side to dig deep at a crucial stage of the season.

"I've said to the players, 'We've got to flip this pretty quick'," added Powell.

"We play Wigan next week and it doesn't get any harder than that. We're going to need a fair bit more than we showed to go anywhere with that game.

"It's easy when it's easy. When it's hard, what are you going to do about it?"