Bookies make Saints favourites for win at Wakefield

Another crucial game on tonight as St Helens travel to Wakefield.

Defeat for St Helens will surely mean the end of their season whereas defeat for the hosts could see them replaced in the top four.

These two met in the last game of the regular season with a St Helens win denying Trinity a top-four spot and an extra home game in the Super 8.

After starting the eights with a poor loss at Huddersfield, Chris Chester’s side have had two wins from three, which including an emphatic win over Leeds in their last home game.

Saints started the Super 8s with a fantastic win at Castleford, but three defeats in a row have jeopardised their hopes of a play-off spot.

Both sides will have their new signings from the NRL in their line ups with Tyler Randell, who was sensational in the win at Salford last week, lining up for the hosts and Ben Barba making his second appearance for Saints.

The bookies make Justin Holbrook’s side favourites to win this at around 4/7, which is very short for a side on a three-game losing run. They will be smarting from a very poor defeat to local rivals Wigan, they were second best in all areas against a Warriors side that had played at Wembley only six days before.

Saints were unfortunate to lose to Leeds and Hull in previous weeks but were well beaten last week whilst Wakefield were convincing winners at Salford.

Trinity seem to have put poor defeats to Saints and Huddersfield behind them, if they play like they did against Leeds three weeks ago they’ll surely win this.

They were competitive for long periods in the loss at Castleford and they’ve surprised the critics, me included, who thought they’d drop off when the Super 8s started.

Whilst I do think the value is with Wakefield at 7/5 to win this on current form, the defeat to St Helens in July has to be a worry, that was a big game and Trinity blew it. This really is one of those games that could go either way so maybe the safer ploy is the hosts getting a 4-point start on the handicap.

This should be close as neither result would be a surprise.

If pushed would just favour Wakefield by around 6-10 points, in what could be an entertaining game with lots of points.

There were over 50 points in the last league meeting between these two and I think this could go over 50 points again if it stays dry .

Wakefield’s last two games have had over 60 points in them.

Ben Barba and Mason Caton-Brown head first try lists at 10/1. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook to score anytime holds more value for me though at 5/1.

Finally the man of the match – the key clash here could be at dummy half between Roby and Randell. Barba heads the market at 5/1 but for all he looked off the pace against Wigan, he has to be a danger as Sky would love to give him the award.

Percival is another danger at 16/1, but Roby looks back to his near best and at 12/1 is my pick in the Red V. The same could be said for Randell, who came over from the NRL to aid Wakefield in their quest for a play-off spot, the only difference being he was sensational in his debut last week and is very hard to overlook at 9/1.