Warrington Wolves reserves fall to dramatic late defeat away to Halifax

WOLVES’ second string suffered an agonising last-gasp defeat on Saturday as Halifax nicked the points at the Shay on Saturday.

Stuart Barrow’s side were 16-0 down but Brad Stanway’s penalty gave them a 22-20 lead with full-time imminent, but Martin Reilly’s try after the hosts regained possession from a short kick-off won the game for the Yorkshiremen.

After the game, Barrow called on his team to bounce back after losing in such dramatic fashion.

“That is a very cruel way to lose the game but sometimes these things happen and you have to take it on the chin,” he said.

“We allowed them to build up a head of steam early on and they took advantage of a few individual errors but to be fair to the lads they really did knuckle down and got back into a position to win the game until the late try.

“We will definitely learn from this and hopefully next time out we will be able to bounce back to winning ways.

“We will get back on the training field and work hard on certain areas and I am confident that we can come back stronger in the long run.”

Reilly opened the scoring early on before tries from Josh Greenwood-Macdonald and Sam Smeaton put Halifax in control.

Toby King charged down a kick to score Wolves’ first try before the break and that proved crucial in switching the momentum.

Corey Lee acrobatically dived over in the right corner before Sean Kenny’s mazy run created space for Jake Shoel to cross and level the scores.

However, Wolves weren’t finished there as King’s clever kick was collected by Tyler Whittaker, who raced over between the posts to put The Wire 20-16 ahead.

Jake Eccleston’s try brought Halifax level, but Stanway’s penalty goal looked to have won it before Reilly barged over with the last play of the game.

Wolves: Declan Kay; Corey Lee, Jake Shoel, Richard Harris, David Thompson; Toby King, Tyler Whittaker; Joe Ryan, Sean Kenny, Jack Francis, Danny Rasool, Matthew Kilgannon, Jacque Peet. Subs: Alex Whalley, Jordan Case, Reece Brunt, Kane Ditchfield, Brad Stanway.