Wakefield Trinity 32 Hull FC 30: Wakefield fightback is sweet revenge for Agar

Agar was shown the door at the KC Stadium at the end of last season after four years in charge, and must have feared the worst after 50 minutes as Trinity trailed 30-10 against the Airlie Birds.

But 22 unanswered points, capped off with Ali Lauitiiti’s match-winning try, turned the match on its head and saw Hull surrender a winning position for the third successive week.

Hull led 18-10 at the break, and when they swiftly added two more tries in the second half, it looked bleak for Wakefield.

“We believed at half-time if we could fix up a few things we could get back in the game, but the way we started the second half and conceded two tries we knew if we didn’t score next we could be in a spot of bother,” said Agar.

“If we could score next we were happy with the way we were travelling and we knew they’d had a couple of weeks where they had not held on to leads.

“We felt if we could put them in a position where they were under pressure a little bit of doubt would creep in.

“I want to shower our players with praise about their never-say-die attitude and the way they kept playing and playing. We grew in strength and played the last half an hour really tough.”

Wakefield suffered a blow before kick-off when new captain Danny Kirmond – only handed the job taking over from Steve Southern last week – was ruled out with a suspected fractured cheekbone. Leading the team out was vice captain Richie Mathers – the full-back on loan from Castleford Tigers – who is looking to secure a permanent move to Belle Vue.

Hull were without injured duo Will Sharp and Richard Horne, England international Kirk Yeaman returning from a foot injury at centre.

Ben Cockayne and then Mathers both gifted up possession in their own half to Hull in the early exchanges, inviting pressure on their line.

Wakefield did well to soak up the pressure, but the visitors finally opened the scoring, Willie Manu squeezing over in front of the massed ranks of Black and Whites supporters. Tickle added the conversion before adding a 15th-minute penalty to make it 8-0.

Hull playmaker Brett Seymour then nipped over after Vince Mellars made a complete hash of his tackle. Tickle converted and at 14-0 it was a fair reflection on an opening quarter which the visitors had dominated.

A rare attack from Wakefield saw Joe Westerman placed on report for a dangerous tackle on Oli Wilkes. Westerman, the former Castleford star, was swiftly substituted but Trinity’s momentum carried them forward and centre Dean Collis crashed over in the right-hand corner.

Paul Sykes missed the long-range conversion, but Trinity were at least now putting pressure on the Hull defence.

Yet they could not match the swift and incisive passing of the visitors, who enhanced their lead just before the break when the ball was quickly moved to winger Ben Crooks, who side-stepped his marker before going over. Tickle could not add the conversion.

At 18-4 things looked bleak for Wakefield heading towards half-time, but a breakaway try suddenly got the hosts back in the game.

Cockayne and Tim Smith were involved before setting Peter Fox free and he rampaged through the centre to score, Sykes tagging on the conversion.

The respite was shortlived however with two quickfire Yeaman tries. First Seymour played in Yeaman for a try to restore the 14-point lead for Peter Gentle’s side, before Jamie Ellis dinked a kick through to open up Wakefield’s defence and the centre pounced again.

Tickle converted both tries to give Hull a 30-10 lead, yet credit to Wakefield they refused to throw in the towel and replied with three tries of their own in eight minutes in a stunning fightback.

Sykes pulled a try back, converted by the stand-off himself, after Cockayne’s chipped kick caused confusion in the visitors’ defence.

Fox was held short in the corner as Trinity piled forward, a rampaging Cockayne earning a penalty, before Danny Washbrook crashed through some weak Hull tackling to reduce the deficit further.

Sykes converted that effort and added the extras to Kyle Amor’s try to slash Hull’s lead to 30-28 with 20 minutes left.

Wakefield were now cranking up the pressure and Sykes was key in putting Trinity in front for the time in the game in the 72nd minute, picking out Lauititi and the former Leeds Rhinos forward bulldozed through, stretching out to ground the ball.

The only surprise was that man of the match Sykes missed the conversion, but it mattered little as Wakefield held out to secure a stunning victory.

“There is a lot of work to be done in a lot of areas,” said Hull coach Peter Gentle.

“The big lead we had smothered over a lot of things Wakefield were doing well and I was never comfortable being up by 20 points because I could see the cracks in us.

“We have lost our attitude in defence. Our discipline was poor and our kicking game was atrocious.”

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Mathers, Fox, Collis, Mellars, Cockayne, Sykes, Smith, Amor, Aiton, Raleigh, Lauititi, Walshaw, Washbrook. Substitutes: Wood, Wilkes, Southern, Trout.

Hull FC: Russell, Cooks, Turner, Yeaman, Briscoe, Ellis, Seymour, Lynch, Houghton, Moa, Manu, Tickle, Westerman. Substitutes: Whiting, Aspinwall, Pitts, O’Carroll.

Referee: S Ganson (RFL).