Wakefield Trinity 23 Salford City Reds 23: Agar left angered by Trinity efforts in Reds draw

The West Yorkshire club dominated the second period against Super League’s bottom-placed side yet continually failed to capitalise on their pressure and it was left to Sykes to scrape a draw.

They were not helped yesterday by a controversial decision from referee Thierry Alibert who, earlier in the game, had awarded a penalty goal from Salford’s Marc Sneyd which one of the touch judges – in agreeance with all the Trinity fans behind the posts – had waved wide.

In the end, that could easily be seen as decisive but Agar refused to use it as an excuse and instead, quite rightly, laid the blame at his under-performing players.

“It was too hard for us to tell (if it had gone over) but to be honest I’m not even focusing on that,” he said. “It’s irrelevant. It might have got us an extra point but I’d rather look to ourselves than say that was the difference.

“I’m disappointed with the performance, not with not getting the win, and I’m a bit angry with the way we played certainly in the first half when we lacked any enthusiasm. I’m looking at some of our senior players there and there was far too many errors.

“The enthusiasm lifted a bit in the second but the quality of our performance didn’t.

“We committed less errors but what we did with the ball left a lot to be desired. We lost our way really badly attack wise and can’t just expect to throw the ball to (Dean) Collis and Ali (Lauitiiti) and let them make things happen.

“We’ve played really well and not come away with the spoils the last couple of weeks; perhaps today their attitude was they could come and do as little as possible against the bottom team and win.”

Wakefield badly missed the power of injured prop Andy Raleigh, fellow front-row Kyle Amor – dropped for disciplinary reasons – and captain Danny Kirmond but should still have made more of their opportunities here.

Instead, they did not lead after the 14th minute and struggled for real fluency, becoming too stifled when Salford – for all their enthusiastic defence – were ripe for the taking.

Losing scrum-half Tim Smith to a calf strain on the hour did not aid their attempts either but, equally so, Sykes managed to convert only one of their five tries and also skewed a second drop goal attempt wide with just seconds remaining.

All in all, after those narrow losses against Huddersfield Giants and Catalan Dragons, this was certainly more disappointing.

Trinity had started brightly with Collis, their sharpest player all afternoon, putting Peter Fox over in the right corner after just three minutes, the winger extending his try-scoring run to five consecutive matches.

Salford responded quickly though when Matty Ashurst made a rampaging break for Jodie Broughton to cross after evading some weak attempted tackles.

A poor pass by Fox gifted Salford possession to score their second try, Trinity’s defence again questionable as Lee Jewitt was allowed to bundle over from close range.

Sneyd slotted his first kick but Agar’s side were invited back in when Darrell Griffin – the Leeds Rhinos prop on loan at Salford – was penalised when in possession driving back the kick-off.

After some sustained pressure, Richie Mathers straightened up a line from full-back, put a huge fend on to the hapless Theo Fages and unleashed Collis to finish.

However, Mathers produced a cardinal sin by passing forward under no pressure as he gathered the restart allowing Salford an immediate chance to retaliate.

They duly did as Ashurst burst on to Fages’s pass, sucked in a raft of defenders and then returned to the little Frenchman who skipped over, Sneyd adding the extras.

There was the rarity of a scrum against the head as Wakefield’s pack delivered a premeditated shove to take Salford aback.

It paid dividends as they scored in the resultant set, one of Tim Smith’s trademark short passes sending Frankie Mariano hurtling over untouched between the posts.

Sykes’s sole conversion saw them trail just 16-14 but then came Sneyd’s debateable goal in injury-time.

Wakefield only had themselves to blame, though, when they imploded in the 48th minute, Lee Smith dropping Mathers’s pass and Jack Murphy racing in from near halfway.

But another lovely pass from Tim Smith soon sent Danny Washbrook over from 15m for the loose forward’s first try since July and then came all that pressure as Salford twice kicked straight into touch.

England call-up Ben Cockayne, eventually, went in for his seventh try of the season as they finally found some cohesion to level in the 64th minute but Sneyd kicked a drop goal eight minutes later following a rare excursion from the visitors’ own half. Sykes restored parity with just 99 seconds left on the clock but could not do the same in the final throes.

Wakefield: Mathers, Fox, Collis, L Smith, Cockayne, Sykes, T Smith, Poore, Aiton, Trout, Lauitiiti, Mariano, Washbrook. Substitutes: Wood, Wilkes, Mellars, Annakin.

Salford City Reds: Sneyd, Murphy, Gleeson, Gibson, Broughton, Fages,Foran, Griffin, Godwin, McPherson, Ashurst, Dixon, Mauro. Substitutes: Owen, James, Jewitt, Boyle.

Referee: T Alibert (Toulouse).