Kristian Woolf hails St Helens ‘fight and character’ after golden point win at Wakefield Trinity

Table-toppers Saints moved a step closer to lifting the end-of-season League Leaders’ Shield after a nerve-shattering golden point 13-12 victory over bottom of the table Wakefield Trinity at Belle Vue on Sunday - but won’t be getting complacent.

The defending champions were far from their best in an encounter which only came to life in the latter stages after lack-lustre St Helens had wiped out a 12-0 early second-hall deficit, leaving the relegation-haunted West Yorkshire outfit crestfallen.

The dagger to the heart came from the boot of Jack Welsby who kept his cool to slot the ball between the sticks to give Krisitian Woolf’s boys the spoils and at the same time establish a six point cushion over arch-rivals Wigan Warriors at the summit of Super League.

It would be fair to say, it wasn’t exactly a polished performance by the pacemakers in a game, which could so easily have gone either way and was littered with a plethora of handling errors due to the wet conditions under foot.

But St Helens eventually lived up to their reputation as comeback kings and firm believers that any contest isn’t over until the fat lady sings, much to the delight of head coach Kristian Woolf.

Woolf said: “We didn’t back up the energy we showed in the previous week’s game against Huddersfield Giants but we demonstrated a great deal of character and fight in the second half which meant something to us.”

As well as Welsby, Saints were also indebted to Jonny Lomax who marked his 300 career appearance by firing over far from easy touchline conversions to add to tries by Regan Grace and Jon Bennison.

“Jonny has put his hand up to say he needs to be our goal kicker at the present time and also does so many other things good as well,” said the Aussie coach, who insisted that there was no better man to be taking those kicks at the moment because he handled the pressure so well.

On Welsby, Woolf said:”He has played much better in the past than that but he came up with a crucial play under pressure when it really mattered.”

Wakefield: Whitbread, Hood, Arona, Ashurst, Tanginoa, Batchelor ( James), Miller, Lino, Murphy, Gaskell, Croft, Taufua, Shaul. Subs: Fifita, Crowther, Battye, Bowden.

Saints: Welsby, Bennison, Hurrell, Davies, Grace, Lomax, Roby, Walmsley, Lussick, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor (Joe), Wingfield. Subs: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Passi, Bell, Norman.

Referee: Ben Thaler.