Two sent off as Siddal give Wakefield Trinity progress after first-half fright

Wakefield Trinity had their stay in Super League end last year and with it ended the later entry into the Challenge Cup meaning they started this year’s road to Wembley in Round Three.

Being drawn against amateur side Siddal they were made huge favourites priced at 1/1000 and given a 72-point head start by the bookmakers, but amateur side Siddal made a mockery of that, at least in the first forty minutes.

One of Siddal’s coaching team is Huddersfield Giants’ star Jake Connor and he’d told BBC West Yorkshire that he wanted Wakefield Trinity to leave the field knowing they’d been in a game, and that was certainly the case.

Connor had explained: “I’m also realistic like I say, the boys have always wondered what it would be like to play against some of the players and they’ve got that opportunity and I think the best thing for them this week is for Wakefield to come off and say, ‘oh he’s a good player’ and that we were a good team who gave a good account of ourselves.

“I think we’ve got a team to do that, they work really hard, they’re pretty fit, obviously the skill level and the speed of the game is going to be a lot different to what they play in it but I’m excited to see how they go.”

Siddal certainly did that and probably even caused a bit of a scare for the Championship favourites.

Siddal exit Challenge Cup after giving Wakefield Trinity a first-half fright

Daryl Powell had named a very impressive Wakefield Trinity squad and the 17 that took the field including the likes of Luke Gale, Mason Lino, Jermaine McGillvary, Josh Griffin, and plenty of other Super League calibre players.

Another one of those was Max Jowitt who kicked the game off and he was called upon early on to convert the opening try scoring by Oli Pratt, Trinity taking the lead after just eight minutes.

At that stage, it might have been concerning for the neutrals and Siddal fans that the game could get away from the amateurs but they hit back almost immediately.

On the 12-minute mark, Oli Lewis scored a try that will be remembered forever for the home side, especially considering it was awarded as a penalty try meaning Lewis Hosty had two kicks, one of which he knocked over to make it 6-6.

Handbags on the half-hour mark saw both Mason Lino and Oli Lewis sent off with Wakefield’s general and Siddal’s try scorer shown red cards for their role in the incident.

Wakefield reacted best with Iain Thornley scoring to make it 12-6 as the teams headed into the sheds, a hugely impressive forty minutes from Siddal.

Daryl Powell fired his team up at halftime with two quickfire tries coming from veterans Josh Griffin and Luke Gale to effectively kill any chance of an upset.

Jowitt added the extras on both occasions and at that point, the game became a procession with Thomas Doyle, Griffin, Jowitt and Pratt all scoring in the next 15 minutes to make it 48-6 by the hour mark.

Jack Croft then got in on the action to score the ninth and with it came Max Jowitt’s ninth conversion to make it 54-6, Siddal having sadly ran out of steam after their intense efforts in the first forty minutes.

Croft scored his second and Jowitt finally missed but he slotted over minutes later after Liam Hood got in on the action. Jowitt secured his second of the day to make it 70-6 and take his personal points tally to 30 for the day.

Trinity will play Lock Lane or Hunslet ARLFC in the Fourth Round.