Wakefield 11/4 to win at the KCOM

A crucial game on Thursday Night Rugby, where the loser will be all but out of contention for the play offs

Wakefield visit the KCOM and the stakes couldn’t be higher as  both sides had damaging defeats last week, but both can count themselves rather unfortunate to lose.

Trinity dominated for long periods against St Helens but lost out to a late Johnny Lomax try, Liam Watts was controversially shown red for the black and whites against Wigan. Mind you FC staged a tremendous 2nd half fightback with 12 men and nearly pulled off a memorable victory.

Michaels and Ellis come back for Hull and Watts plays after his red being deemed sending off sufficient.

Chris Chester has to bring in Wood in place of Hull loanee Hadley and Reece Lyne is a doubt.

The bookies make Lee Radford’s side strong favourites at around 4/11 to win this one and put last week’s defeat behind them. 2 defeats since their win at Wembley hints at the Wembley hoodoo but both games could really have gone either way.

Their league form has been very indifferent of late but the coach has clearly been prioritising the cup  so you can’t really read too much into that.

Having said that those odds are very short for a side that has lost it’s last 2 games.

Trinity themselves though have lost 4 of their last 6 and were comfortably beaten here in the regular season, and I’d want at least a couple of points higher than the 5/2 they are generally being quoted at. Trinity get an 8 point start on the handicap and I fear they’ll need more than that.

The only real worry would be how much playing most the game last week with 12 men has taken out of FC,  but they have players to come back and they know the end of the season is not too far away.

Radford has rested his key players when necessary so they should still be fresh, last week apart the black and whites have tended to win when needed and I think they can win this one too.

Trinity couldn’t beat Saints with the lions share of possession last week and this could be even tougher.

Chris Chester has worked wonders to get his squad on the verge of the play offs but this may just be one step too far.

The 4/11 is very short for the home side but they won the league game by 22 points despite losing at Half time and I think they can win by more than the 8 point handicap.

I think the home side can win this by around 16-20 points and keep alive their hopes of a top 4 finish.

Fonua is scoring tries for fun at the moment and is good value at 10/1 for the 1st try, he shares favouritism with Shaul,  Tupou is 16/1 to cross 1st.

Finally the man of the match,  everything seems to be going through Sneyd at the moment and despite being very short at 9/2 you can’t really see past him. Kelly at 7/1 and Houghton at 9/1 are dangers as would Fonua be  if he scored a couple of tries or more but it has to be Sneyd for me.

As for the visitors, Randell looks a great end of season purchase and is shortest at 9/1. Miller at 12/1 and Finn at 16/1 are dangers but the ex Newcastle Knights star was the best player in Trinity colours last week so it has to be the 2 favourites, Sneyd and Randell.