PICTURES ADDED: Drop goal enough for Wolves
9:54pm Saturday 19th July 2008
A LATE drop goal gave Wolves a narrow 19-18 win at Huddersfield on Saturday.
Wolves trailed 18-6 at half time but levelled the match after the interval before Lee Briers kicked the winning field goal in the 76th minute.
The victory, which came despite Wolves being far from their best, was Jimmy Lowes’ sixth in seven matches in charge and put Warrington three points ahead of fifth-placed Wigan, who have a game in hand.
Wolves were without Vinnie Anderson with a shoulder injury so Martin Gleeson was surprisingly switched to loose forward, with Simon Grix coming in at right centre.
Wolves made a slow start to the game and fell behind after three minutes when Leroy Cudjoe touched down Ryan Hudson’s grubber kick, seconds after Chris Riley had knocked on under little pressure.
Chris Thorman converted and, although a Chris Hicks penalty reduced Huddersfield’s lead to four points, they were soon 12-2 in front.
Hicks and Kevin Penny collided as they both attempted to catch Luke Robinson’s bomb and Thorman put Cudjoe through a gap from the next attack.
Lee Briers’ pass sent Ben Westwood charging over for Wolves’ only first-half try but Hicks hit the post with the conversion from a reasonably central position.
Soon afterwards Hicks was the victim of a Stephen Wild ball steal and Cudjoe evaded tackles from Michael Monaghan and Ben Harrison to complete a first-half hat-trick.
Wolves came from 22-6 down to beat Huddersfield at Millennium Magic and a similar second-half turnaround was required at the Galpharm Stadium.
Grix took Riley’s pass before darting past Wild and Cudjoe to halve the deficit six minutes after half time and Wolves were back on level terms three minutes later when Paul Rauhihi stormed over from Adrian Morley’s superb offload.
Huddersfield then saw two tries ruled out by marginal video referee decisions and Wolves lost Mike Cooper (neck) and Chris Riley (shoulder) to injury before drop goals became the decisive factor.
Robinson dropped the ball as he lined up an attempt for the home side and Thorman also missed when he should have hit the target.
In between those two attempts, Wolves somehow kept the ball alive on the last tackle and drop goal specialist Briers swiftly collected a pass and kicked between the sticks from an awkward angle, a split second before a tackle came in.
Giants: Leroy Cudjoe (3t); Martin Aspinwall, Kevin Brown, Paul Whatuira, David Hodgson; Chris Thorman (3g), Luke Robinson; Keith Mason, Ryan Hudson, Andy Raleigh, Jamahl Lolesi, Stephen Wild, Danny Kirmond. Subs: Darrell Griffin, Paul Jackson, Stuart Jones, Steve Snitch.
Wolves: Chris Hicks (3g); Chris Riley, Simon Grix (1t), Matt King, Kevin Penny; Lee Briers, Michael Monaghan; Adrian Morley, Jon Clarke, Paul Rauhihi (1t), Ben Westwood (1t), Louis Anderson, Martin Gleeson. Subs used: Rob Parker, Ben Harrison, Mike Cooper, Andy Bracek.
Referee: Richard Silverwood.
Attendance: 5,033.