Kristian Woolf hails Wakefield Trinity and St Helens’ character as he has his say on golden point

If you were watching this game, you would have been forgiven in thinking that Wakefield were the team in form as they raced into a 10-0 lead from which the reigning champions had no answer to in the first-half.

Mason Lino kicked another penalty goal early on in the second forty minutes to make it 12-0, but Regan Grace replied on 55 minutes to finally breach the Wakefield line.

Jon Bennison notched a second for Saints with 13 minutes to go, and, with Jonny Lomax’s superb touchline conversion, the visitors were back level at 12-12.

Three drop goals were missed by Saints and one by Jacob Miller as the two teams went into golden point to decide such a bizarre game.

Lino missed his first attempt before Jack Welsby slotted over the winner to break Trinity hearts.

For Saints head coach Kristian Woolf, his side deserves credit for the way in which they showed character.

“It was a close game, but Wakefield deserve credit. They showed up with a great energy and they won that first-half. It was a lesson for us and we didn’t quite back up the energy we had from last week in the first-half,” Woolf said.

“We did show character and showed that it meant something for us in the second-half. I don’t need to say too much they knew they weren’t where they needed to be, but it’s only small adjustments. There are some brave leaders there.

Woolf did have his say on the conditions as the rain hit every inch of grass at Belle Vue.

“The conditions are a leveller, you can see that they handled the conditions better than we did. We had a lot of blokes slipping over and we need to have a look at how we handled the conditions.

“It (the conditions) makes it harder to score good tries.”

The Saints boss also gave an update on centre Konrad Hurrell who appeared to be limping towards the back end of the game.

“He’s fine; he finished well, he had a play towards the end when he came steaming onto the ball.

“If he doesn’t get ankle tapped he perhaps makes it so golden point doesn’t have to happen.”

With the game finished by golden point, the ruling has been a contentious one in recent seasons, but Woolf is happy to just play by the rules.

“I don’t really mind either way, if we walked away with one point for a draw I could see reason for that.

“It was a game that deserved a draw in a way but it’s exiting for the fans. I don’t really care either way we play whatever the rules are.”