St Helens Reserves 76 Warrington Wolves 20

A YOUNG Wolves second string fell to consecutive defeats against a strong St Helens side at Langtree Park on Thursday evening.

It was always going to be tough for Stuart Barrow’s men against a side containing established Super League players like Travis Burns, Jordan Turner and Andre Savelio, and so it proved as Saints ran in 14 tries.

However, Barrow was full of praise for the efforts of his youngsters.

“It was a difficult night for us but I cannot take anything away from my lads who kept plugging away right up to the final whistle,” he said.

“The effort cannot be faulted, it was just the execution at times that let us down and when you let a class side like St Helens build up momentum then they are very difficult to stop.”

Calvin Wellington scored twice in the first 10 minutes for Saints, either side of a Matty Fleming effort, and Ricky Bailey ran in another before Wolves finally got on the board through Charlie Pythian’s try.

It did little to stop Saints’ momentum as Fleming went over for his second before Dave Llewellyn and Aaron Smith made it seven first-half tries for the hosts, although Wolves did have the last laugh through Alex Whalley.

Turner opened the scoring in the second half before Tommi Hughes crossed twice, with David Thompson scoring for Wolves just before the hour.

However, Hughes completed his hat-trick and further tries from Jack Ashworth and Tom Connick completed the rout, although it was Wolves who finished the strongest through Harvey Livett’s try on the hooter.

Wolves forwards Daniel Murray and Joe Ryan featured as well as being named as 18th and 19th men for the first team's Challenge Cup clash with Oldham on Saturday.

Wolves: Kay; Thompson, Harris, Pythian, Lee; Livett, Whittaker; Murray, Kenny, Philbin, Rasool, Peet, Ryan. Subs: Whalley, Francis, Dandy, Moran.