Wolves miss chance to seal home play-off

11:15pm Sunday 24th August 2008

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THE battle for fourth place will go to the last weekend of the season after Warrington Wolves crashed to a 44-24 defeat at bottom club Castleford on Sunday night.

Wigan’s home defeat to Leeds on Friday meant that victory at Cas would have all but secured a home play-off tie for Wolves, whose points difference is far superior to the Warriors.

But defeat at The Jungle means Wolves will go into their final regular season game – at home to Huddersfield on September 5 – needing a win to confirm fourth spot.

Defeat to the Giants could allow Wigan, who travel to St Helens in their final game, and Bradford, who host Hull KR on Monday before finishing at Castleford, to move above them.

The loss at Castleford was Wolves’ third straight defeat and could have been much heavier had the hosts not missed eight of their 10 conversions.

Chris Riley was passed fit after suffering concussion last week but Jimmy Lowes surprisingly still handed American winger Taylor Welch his debut on the left flank, with Kevin Penny demoted to 18th man after a fragile defensive performance against Hull KR.

Wolves fell behind in the fifth minute to a replica of the try that marked the end of Paul Cullen’s reign when Cas won at The Halliwell Jones in May, with Luke Dorn racing 90 metres to score an interception try after Lee Briers had attempted a risky pass from the floor.

Briers hit back as he supported Ben Westwood to touch down between the posts, with Chris Hicks adding the conversion to put Wolves in front.

But Cas had most of the possession and regained the lead when pressure from Awen Guttenbeil meant Hicks was unable to deal with Dorn’s torpedo and Michael Shenton fed the loose ball to Michael Wainwright on the left flank.

Shenton then laid on a try for the supporting Stuart Donlan, with Kirk Dixon converting, although Wolves responded when Riley’s smart grounding was given the benefit of the doubt by the video referee after Briers’ grubber had bounced over Wainwright.

Castleford always looked dangerous in attack, though, and quick hands allowed Wainwright to score from Dixon’s pass.

Donlan then touched down the loose ball to make it 22-12 at half time after Shenton had possession under pressure from Welch and Matt King.

That 22-12 scoreline was replicated in the second half, when Wolves lost Martin Gleeson to injury for a period before the England international centre returned to play out the closing stages at loose forward.

Wolves were the first to score after the interval, with Matty Blythe notching his first senior try after surging past Donlan from Michael Monaghan’s pass.

Hicks converted to reduce the deficit to four points but Mike Cooper’s knock on turned over possession and Cas capitalised when Richard Owen scored in the corner after Ryan McGoldrick’s cut-out pass had eluded King.

Briers was then sent to the sin bin for a late tackle on kicker Dorn and Westwood’s knock on led to Shenton putting Owen over again.

Dorn then fed Ned Catic, who bumped off Riley and crossed for a try converted by Craig Huby.

Riley again touched down a grubber that had bounced up awkwardly – this time from the boot of Monaghan – to give Wolves faint hopes of a comeback.

But Dixon scored from Huby’s superb flick pass to end the game as a contest and, after Briers had limped off injured and Westwood had been sent to the sin bin for dissent, Wainwright completed his hat-trick and a miserable night for Wolves.

Tigers: Stuart Donlan (2t); Richard Owen (2t), Michael Shenton, Kirk Dixon (1t, 1g), Michael Wainwright (3t); Ryan McGoldrick, Luke Dorn (1t); Mitchell Sargent, Andrew Henderson, Michael Korkidas, Peter Lupton, Ned Catic (1t), Awen Guttenbeil. Subs used: Craig Huby (1g), Liam Higgins, Mark Leafa, Ryan Boyle.

Wolves: Chris Hicks (4g); Chris Riley (2t), Martin Gleeson, Matt King, Taylor Welch; Lee Briers (1t), Michael Monaghan; Adrian Morley, Jon Clarke, Rob Parker, Ben Westwood, Lee Mitchell, Simon Grix. Subs used: Paul Wood, Mike Cooper, Matty Blythe (1t), Andy Bracek.

Referee: Ian Smith.

Attendance: 5,902.