FULL TIME: Wigan Warriors 24 Warrington Wolves 20

If Huddersfield Giants avoid defeat against St Helens tomorrow night, Wolves will end the regular rounds in fifth place and tackle the eighth-placed finishers – Catalan Dragons or Widnes Vikings – at home in the do-or-die play-offs stage next Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

However, if Huddersfield lose, Wolves’ campaign will conclude in fourth spot and that will mean a trip to table-toppers St Helens at Langtree Park on one of the days mentioned above.

Three converted Wolves tries in the final 14 minutes of the first half made a mockery of how tight the opening stanza was tonight, despite Wolves’ 18-4 lead.

And nobody in the Warrington camp would have needed reminding that Wolves led 16-6 at half time in last year’s Grand Final at Old Trafford before Wigan exploited two Wolves injuries to be crowned champions 30-16.

And like last October, Wigan dominated possession and territory in the second half and got themselves 24-20 in front in a real battle for the brave.

Fists were flying, there were skirmishes off the ball, claret was flowing, Chris Bridge was carried off and James Laithwaite left the field on a stretcher.

But in the final four minutes it was all Wolves, trying to rescue the game and a repeat set from a dropped grubber in the last minute brought a dramatic ending.

With the last play of the game Myler kicked for Stefan Ratchford to chase and as the stadium held its breath the ball ran dead and the final hooter sounded.

Sometimes Wolves’ pressure on kickers works for them, sometimes against them, and Wigan got the fortune from one such instance in the build-up to taking the lead in the first half.

Matty Bowen’s clearance kick ricocheted off Chris Hill andl fell favourably for Dan Sarginson to break away.

Although he was closed down, a few tackles later Sean O’Loughlin spotted Joel Monaghan offering Joe Burgess a few metres of space and the pass was good enough for the young Wigan winger to squeeze over in the corner.

Matty Smith was wide with the conversion from the touchline but Wigan were 4-0 ahead after six minutes.

Opposing wingers Burgess and Joel Monaghan both had scoring opportunities in the ensuing minutes as the action flowed from end to end at a frenetic pace. The touchline was the winner on both of those occasions.

Few scoring chances followed over the next 10 minutes, but it started to get messy around the ruck – holding down, ball steals and one instance of Sarginson hurling Stefan Ratchford off a tackle.

Although Phil Bentham initially penalised Ratchford for his reaction, the touch judge’s intervention resulted in a penalty for Wolves from which they called on the scoreboard operator.

Some lovely handling and dummy running on the right made space for Bridge, who had drifted from the left, to put Joel Monaghan over for his 31st try of the season. Ratchford’s towering conversion put the visitors 6-4 in front after 27 minutes.

Wolves extended their lead with a lovely drill down the middle, albeit after Hill had got away with a knock-on while playing the ball.

From there, Micky Higham darted from dummy half with the move continued by Bridge and his lovely footwork left Liam Farrell tackling shadows before sending the supporting Richie Myler between the posts from 20 metres. Ratchford improved the try for 12-4 after 36 minutes.

And then with less than a minute left on the clock a set move from a scrum was perfectly executed.

On the second tackle, Myler kicked wide for Monaghan who was in acres of space but racing against the dead-ball line. The Australian won by millimetres and Ratchford’s excellent touchline conversion sent Wolves in at the break 18-4 to the good.

Fantastic covering defence work by Ratchford and Matty Russell on Sarginson saved a try in the opening exchanges of the first half.

But Anthony England’s knock-on in a line-clearing run gave Wigan the possession they needed to launch their fightback.

Although Matty Smith’s initial pass went to ground, Bowen regathered and drifted sideways to pick up Sarginson’s angled run. The centre’s pass to Burgess left Joel Monaghan with too much to do and it was 18-8 after 45 minutes.

Wigan continued to keep Wolves pinned back and pulled another try back after 53 minutes.

Anthony Gelling’s little grubber kick early in the tackle count was hacked on by Josh Charnley and the winger beat Ben Currie to the touch inches before the dead-ball line. Smith missed his third conversion to leave Wigan six points behind.

If it hadn’t been tasty enough, Paul Wood and Eddy Pettybourne started to do a good impression of Mike Tyson versus Frank Bruno and both ended up in the sin bin for 10 minutes.

Another skirmish broke out in back play as Wolves raided towards the Wigan line and then a penalty in front of the posts for a shoulder charge on Higham gifted Ratchford two points that pushed Wolves 20-12 ahead after 62 minutes.

But Wigan were not going to give it up and accepted the invitation when Michael Monaghan’s laboured pass to Chris Bridge was picked off by Charnley who hared home from 80 metres close enough to the sticks for Smith to boot the extras and make it 20-18 after 66 minutes.

Bridge was then carried off the field with an ankle injury as Wigan forced a repeat set that Russell had done his best to avoid by dodging three bullets but being put down by a fourth defender firing in.

From the next set, Russell looked to have got his body under the ball as Blake Green crashed over but video referee Richard Silverwood awarded the try with benefit of the doubt.

It proved to be the decisive score, as Green had also produced in the Harry Sunderland Trophy winning performance at Old Trafford last October.

Smith converted that try to put Wigan ahead 24-20 with 13 minutes remaining and with the teams returning to 13-a-side.

Three minutes later Wolves had a lucky escape when Gelling ran behind his own man on the way to the try line, causing an obstruction to Joel Monaghan.

Wolves needed a lease of life and it came when Burgess dropped Myler’s high kick over his own line.

A second repeat set was forced but the pressure was relieved when Rhys Evans was unable to take Myler’s kick to the left corner.

Then with four minutes to go, the game was delayed for a second week running while a Wolves player received full medical attention on the pitch before departing on a stretcher.

This time it was back rower James Laithwaite, who fell in a heap on the floor from a challenge by Micky McIlorum after he had released a pass.

When the game re-started Wolves gave everything to dig out a winning try but they were beaten by the clock and their fiercest enemies for a second time this year and for the first time at the DW Stadium since 2009.

Wolves: Matty Russell; Joel Monaghan, Stefan Ratchford, Chris Bridge, Rhys Evans; Gareth O’Brien, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Michael Monaghan, Roy Asotasi, James Laithwaite, Trent Waterhouse, Ben Harrison. Subs: Micky Higham, Paul Wood, Ben Currie, Anthony England.

Wigan: Matty Bowen; Josh Charnley, Anthony Gelling, Dan Sarginson, Joe Burgess; Blake Green, Matty Smith; Ben Flower, Michael McIlorum, Dom Crosby, Joel Tomkins, Liam Farrell, Sean O’Loughlin. Subs: Sam Powell, Eddy Pettybourne, Tony Clubb, John Bateman.