TOM Lineham ran in a hat-trick as The Wire held off Wakefield Trinity to win an enthralling contest at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The winger bagged an early brace, but tries from Reece Lyne, Bill Tupou and Liam Finn had the visitors in front at the break.

However, Bryson Goodwin, Mike Cooper and Ben Murdoch-Masila’s tries Steve Price’s men in full control.

Tom Johnstone acrobatically crossed to narrow the deficit before Lineham’s full-length score completed his treble, making Ben Jones-Bishop’s try with the last play of the game immaterial.

Just as they had in Catalans last week, The Wire made a quick start and crossed with their first attack of the game.

They threw a nice shape at Wakefield and Stefan Ratchford found the perfect miss-out pass to send Lineham charging over the line.

Wakefield were level when Lyne muscled over on the right edge, but their parity lasted just three minutes.

In a carbon copy of the first try, Ratchford found Lineham with a long pass and he held off Jones-Bishop for his second try.

Goodwin then booted over a penalty to give the hosts a two-score lead, but Wakefield then enjoyed their best spell of the first half.

First, more sloppy edge defence allowed Tupou to touch down before the same player’s break created the try that took Trinity into a half-time lead.

He found Jacob Miller in support and although Tyrone Roberts got to him before he crossed the line, he offloaded for Finn to touch down.

Wolves had a golden opportunity to send themselves into the break level, but Goodwin sent a simple-looking penalty wide of the posts on the hooter.

However, the New Zealander made amends less than a minute into the second half by finishing off a move which started with a barnstorming run from Sitaleki Akuaola.

Goodwin found space to break and he stepped round Scott Grix to cross the whitewash.

Wire were forced to defend their line for a spell, with Wakefield breaking the line with regularity but failing to find the killer pass, thanks in part to some good scramble from the home rearguard.

When they did get a chance at the other end, they were ruthless.

After a scintillating break from Daryl Clark, the ball was spun to the other side and Toby King’s grubber bounced off the post for Cooper to touch down.

If that try was impressive, it was nothing compared to Murdoch-Masila’s effort.

He barged his way through several tackles and showed an impressive turn of pace to charge home from 40 metres.

However, Wakefield hit straight back as they opened up the hosts on the edge again to allow Johnstone to acrobatically dive over.

Wakefield tried to put the pressure on, but Lineham released the valve in fine style by bursting through from a scrum and having enough pace to complete a memorable treble.

Jones-Bishop crept over with the game’s final play after The Wire had given away multiple penalties in a row, but it was the home side’s day.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Mitch Brown, Toby King, Bryson Goodwin, Tom Lineham; Kevin Brown, Tyrone Roberts; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Westwood, Jack Hughes, George King. Subs: Ben Murdoch-Masila, Sitaleki Akauola, Joe Philbin, Harvey Livett.