Chris Chester bemoans “continuous” disruptive St Helens tactic after his side’s narrow loss

Wakefield head coach Chris Chester was happy with how his side performed, but believed that they missed a great opportunity to beat the reigning champions.

“We missed a real good opportunity to beat a good St Helens side – I thought we showed plenty of character and spirit as well as toughness,” Chester said.

“I thought first-half we faced a bit of adversity and came through the other side and we played some really good attacking pieces, but in the second-half we had good ball to put a few more scores on.

“We just seemed a little bit disconnected in the second-half with the ball, so there’s a sense of disappointment.

“We don’t get many chances to beat St Helens irrespective of who we’ve got on the field – we had to play a winger at 9 for longer than anticipated after losing Matty Ashurst to a head knock early on which played a really big part.

“We made too many errors which broke the spirit a little bit, but I’m really proud of their efforts and the guys are doing it tough, we’ve genuinely got 17 players fit.”

Wakefield’s Liam Kay deputised at hooker and earned praise from Chester.

“He ran the ball well and his distribution was good and he put his hand up; It’s a long time since he’s played halfback and keeps telling us he wants to reinvent himself.”

The Trinity head coach was, however, disappointed with some of St Helens’ tactics, such as conceding a six again on the first tackle.

“It was continuous; it wasn’t a one off and teams are giving away six agains early on especially on kick chases to ensure they’ve got a full line on that next play.

“It’s disappointing that they are not being given as penalties, because teams are blatantly holding on on that first play and the team doesn’t get any reward from that.”