Wakefield Trinity boss delighted with win at Hull

Trinity trailed 6-0 in the opening half and were 13-9 behind with 13 minutes to go, but a storming finish saw them home.

All the substitutes played well, but Chester singled out Wood for special praise.

He said: “He’s a popular player in the dressing room and with the coaching staff as well.

“He’s got some great deception and I thought he changed the game when he came on.

“Tyler Randell is very good out of dummy-half and a good, solid defender, but the Hull middles were looking a bit tired and I thought he was good.

“He came up with some real good plays, created the first try and the third as well. He is a smashing player, a smashing kid and hopefully we can keep hold of him for a few more years as well.”

But Chester said it was an”great team effort”.

He added: “We were disappointed with the way we started the first half, but I thought we came out for the second half with some real intent and Hull struggled to come out of their own half of the field.

“That’s a credit to the middles, they laid a real good platform.”

Trinity were reduced to 12 men for 10 minutes early in the second half when Max Jowitt was sin-binned for kicking the ball away after Hull’s Danny Houghton had landed a 40-20.

Chester admitted he was “disappointed” with his full-back. He said: “It’s stupid, stupid.

“I think it has happened a couple of times this year. I’ve no sympathy for Max, it was the right call and it put the team under a lot of pressure.

“But I thought when he came on he showed a some good signs. He’s still a young kid, he’s a little bit naive kicking the ball away, everybody knows it’s a professional foul.

“I was really disappointed with that, but I thought we managed that 10-minute spell pretty well.

“That’s down to Rocky Hampshire and the game-management of both half-backs.”

Hampshire landed seven goals from as many attempts in difficult conditions.

“His kicking is around about 88 per cent,” Chester observed. “It’s really important you’ve got a good goal kicker, esPecially in these play-offs games.

“He has been good and he has got a really good combination with big Pauli Pauli. He took some really good options with the ball and kicked the ball out of his hand well and for goals well.”

The win lifted Trinity above Hull into seventh place, though they are eight points outside the top-four.

“It’s always nice to come here and get a result,” Chester reflected.

“Realistically we know the top-four is probably out of reach, but while it’s mathematically possible we’re going to work our hardest to try and get there.

“We showed some really good signs, especially in that second half. There was a spell when we had 13 sets and completed 12 and off the back of that we got three repeat sets and three tries as well.

“That’s the pleasing aspect. The thing we need to rectify is obviously the start of the game.

“If we can bottle the start of that second half and start like that against St Helens on Thursday then we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”