Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell laments 'criminal' and 'embarrassing' decision following St Helens defeat

Trinity were trailing 2-0 midway through the first half when Welsby touched down despite an apparent forward pass from Jon Bennison in the build-up.

The pass was cleared by the on-field officials and calls for a knock-on by Curtis Sironen were also ignored before Welsby's try was signed off by the video referee to the bemusement of the Belle Vue crowd.

Wakefield were well beaten in the end but Powell could not hide his frustration in his post-match press conference.

"The first try is just not a try," he said.

"It was criminal to give that, to be honest, but you come to expect it, I suppose, so you crack on.

"I don't think we deserved to win but there are some things going on that they have got to get a grip on.

"It's a forward pass. You can't go (to the video referee) for forward passes so just give it as a three-metre knock-on then and have done with it.

"I still don't think we win the game. We weren't good enough to win the game but it's just embarrassing that we can't get those things right.

"The fact that he (the referee) goes for a try anyway and they then can't rule that out when it's so bad – you could see where he's passed it from and where it lands.

"It's easy that one, I would have thought, for anyone, never mind people that are supposed to know what they're doing."

Wakefield issued a positive response and moved back to within two points of their visitors when Isaiah Vagana powered over just before the half-hour mark.

However, tries from Harry Robertson, Daryl Clark and Kyle Feldt earned St Helens a comfortable win against their error-prone hosts.

"We were never really good enough to challenge St Helens," added Powell.

"They're a good side. You have to pressure St Helens to score points. The only time we did that was at the start and then we never really did that again.

"We put too much ball down. You can't do that if you want to win these games."