Luke Gale has shone for the likes of Leeds Rhinos, Castleford Tigers and Hull FC in the past and was tasked with doing the same at Wakefield Trinity in hope that he could fend off relegation this year.
Things started off with difficulty due to injury but as he began to feature more frequently for Mark Applegarth’s side things started to turn around for the West Yorkshire club as he starred alongside Will Dagger.
However, when Mason Lino returned, Lino replaced Dagger in the halves in a move that many questioned especially as Wakefield struggle again and speaking after their disappointing defeat to Salford Red Devils.
Mark Applegarth explained that he took of star signing Gale during the game:
“Well initially we were going to put all three of them on if the game were going how we wanted it to go. We had Galey in the middle and them two on the edges.
“Galey was just struggling a bit out there in terms of he’d come up with four unforced errors. Naturally, with a player like Daggs there, we made the change because of that.
“I don’t think any of them pivots will be particularly happy with how they went in those positions today.”
This comes as the club deal with some worrying injuries.
When asked about Max Jowitt, he said: “Yeah, we’ll have to see how he settles down.
“Reece Lynn has done his hamstring. That’s a pretty obvious one so we’ll have to find out how long that is.
“Liam Hood obviously passed his head test and then the other one’s Max who’s limping about a bit so we’ll see how that settles down over the next few days.”
Salford raced off into a 6-0 lead as they scored within just five minutes with Ryan Brierley continuing his stellar season being the beneficiary of a Brodie Croft break from halfway.
Marc Sneyd helped the Red Devils pile the pressure on when he nailed a 40/20 ten minutes later but it was to no avail, the game being a solid back and forth with Wakefield showing plenty of fight.
Salford defended back to back sets before forcing a penalty inside Trinity’s 20 from which Marc Sneyd opted for two to extend the lead to 8-0.
Joe Burgess almost ran the length of the field but was tapped metres short before the break with the home side heading into the half leading 8-0.
The Red Devils extended that lead ten minutes into the second half when Andy Ackers crossed over. Trinity had been forced into a goal line drop out from which Ackers collected the ball to stroll over and help extend the lead to 14-0.
Brodie Croft came close to killing the game off but juggled and spilled leaving Trinity with ten minutes to try get back into it and stop Salford’s charge.
Trinity failed to do so and the game was rounded off with just minutes to go when Ryan Brierley scored his second of the game, another supporting line although this time for Ken Sio.
That saw Salford register a 20-0 win and more importantly register their second in a row right at the business end of the season, whereas for Wakefield it marked another missed opportunity as they sit two points adrift with just eight points to play for.
