Warrington Wolves' unbeaten run ends with Valvoline Cup defeat to St Helens (From Warrington Guardian)

Warrington Wolves' unbeaten run ends with Valvoline Cup defeat to St Helens

10:11am Tuesday 7th August 2012 in Wolves news

St. Helens u20 40 Warrington Wolves u20 13

AN impressive second half performance from St Helens paved the way for a comfortable victory over league leaders Warrington Wolves in the Valvoline Cup at Langtree Park.

Warrington started strongly and took an early lead, but after the first half ended level the home side stepped up a gear to register a deserved win that brought to an end Wolves' unbeaten run.

Wolves' under 20s head coach Richard Marshall said: "We are obviously disappointed with the result.

"We started brightly, scored early on and followed our gameplan, but then Saints come back at us and we were happy to go in level at the break.

"We still thought that we were in control but Saints had other ideas and played fast, especially around the ruck area, and we struggled to cope with that.

"Our game management wasn’t great and losing Gareth O’Brien (dislocated shoulder) just before half time didn’t help us in that respect, but we should have had enough quality to cope.

"We have a short turnaround now before our next match against Wigan Warriors which takes place this Saturday, kick off 2.00pm, at the Halliwell Jones Stadium .

"We have had a couple of blips this season but the players are quick learners and I will be looking for a good response from them in what is another good local derby game.”

Wolves opened the scoring when Bobbie Goulding sent James Mendeika over after four minutes, O'Brien converting, but Wolves were unable to capitalise on the following dominant spell.

That opened the door for the hosts and they took the lead with converted tries from Danny Yates and Lee Gaskell, meaning that James Laithwaite's try and O'Brien's penalty goal just before the break saw the teams change ends with the score 12-12.

A Goulding drop goal 14 minutes into the second half meant that Wolves did recapture the lead, however briefly, but Saints, propelled by man of the match and try scorer Lee Gaskell, scored through Gary Wheeler, Adam Swift, Lewis Foster and Jason Sandford to wrap up a comfortable win.

Wolves: Jordan Burke, Danny Birkett, Ben Hellewell, James Mendeika, Gene Ormsby, Gareth O’Brien, Bobbie Goulding, Glenn Riley, Brad Dwyer, Jack Morrison, James Laithwaite, Danny Bridge, Jack Cooper. Subs: Brooke Broughton, Callan Beckett, Andy Finn, Ryan Maneely.