WARRINGTON Wolves’ gutsy second-half fightback was undone by a winning Wigan drop goal with the last play of the game.

Josh Charnley looked like he had earned The Wire a point with a try four minutes from time to pull the scores level at 12-12.

Stefan Ratchford missed the touchline conversion attempt, Tyrone Roberts was wide with a drop goal attempt soon after but Wigan youngster Josh Woods did not miss with his left-footed effort from 35 metres to seal Warrington’s fate.

It means Bennie Westwood missed out on a win on his 500th game.

Wolves had trailed 12-4 at half time but Tom Lineham had got Wire back in the hunt until the drama of the final five minutes.

Wolves should have gone ahead in the eighth minute but Tyrone Roberts juggled and lost possession with the try line begging after Liam Marshall had dropped the scrum-half’s towering high kick.

Soon after Wigan made The Wire pay.

Sam Powell found Sam Tomkins chiming into the line from deep and as the extra man the full-back set Tom Davies free on the outside of Tom Lineham to race home from 30 metres. Tomkins converted.

Wolves responded when Toby King dived over on the right edge but Bryson Goodwin was way off the mark with his touchline conversion attempt.

Wire had another opportunity to strike when Lineham’s footwork left Davies for dead but as the cover closed him down his pass inside left Ratchford stretching and the ball was spilled.

After three defenders scrambled to stop Tomkins short of the Warrington line Liam Paisley crashed over from short range for a debut try, which Tomkins converted for 12-4 at half time.

It took 22 minutes of the second half to pass before the next score and crucially for The Wire it came their way.

Dec Patton, a replacement for Daryl Clark at dummy-half, sent quick ball to Kevin Brown and his miss-out pass put Lineham over. Ratchford took over the kicking but was wide from the touchline.

The game was end to end in the final 10 minutes as both sides sought a killer score.

And it was former Wigan winger Charnley who took a wide ball from Mitch Brown and somehow powered his way through three covering defenders to touch down by the corner post. Ratchford’s touchline conversion attempt went agonisingly across the face of the posts, 12-12.

When Roberts fluffed his long-range field-goal effort Wigan had one last-gasp chance to steal the win back and Woods delivered with pinpoint accuracy.

* We apologise for the live blog being withdrawn from the Warrington Guardian website during the match last night. Unfortunately, our reporter at the game was unable to add updates due to unforeseen technical difficulties at the DW Stadium. We intend for normal service to resume when The Wire host Catalans Dragons at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Thursday.