Super League: Wakefield Wildcats 12-26 St Helens

Jonny Lomax starred as St Helens moved up to fifth and Wakefield endured a fifth successive Super League defeat.

Anthony Laffranchi and Adam Swift both crossed in the first 10 minutes for Saints before Sia Soliola touched down.

Reece Lyne closed the gap before half-time with a superb solo effort, but Lomax, having kicked two goals, grounded in the second period.

Kyle Amor scored to give Trinity hope but Lomax fed Lance Hohaia to cut off the home side's fightback.

Saints had already sealed their play-off spot, but head towards the post-season in fine form, securing a fifth consecutive win.

Wakefield however started like a side suffering from the strain of four straight defeats and were behind after two minutes as Laffranchi nipped through a gap to stretch over the line after good work from Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.

Wildcats' misery continued five minutes later, Francis Meli pushing the ball out to Swift in the corner for a try and replacement Soliola added a third, benefitting from Tony Puletua's determined play.

Lomax kicked his second goal of the afternoon to make it 16-0, but Wakefield needed a moment of magic from Lyne to go into half-time on the scoreboard, the wing covering 80 metres before coasting past Lomax and touching down.

The Saints scrum-half was among the try scorers himself in the second period, rushing on to Tom Makinson's kick and grounding inches short of the dead ball line.

A succession of penalties saw McCarthy-Scarsbrook sin-binned and Amor took advantage to score - Bobbie Goulding kicking the extras - as Saints began to look nervous in the final third of the game.

The visitors escaped a scare when Amor was denied on the line by Lomax, who helped finish off the contest with a burst down the middle and feeding Hohaia for the try.

Wakefield coach Richard Agar on whether his side were deflated after Hull FC and Hull KR's wins on Friday ended their play-off hopes:

"No, not at all. It was probably symptomatic of the way we've played for the last month.

"I don't think being in or out of the play-offs made too much difference.

"Our attitude to compete was okay; I thought we controlled a lot of tackles during the course of the game but we sound like a broken record.

"Whenever we're making fundamental errors like we are making then it's going to be hard on ourselves.

"We controlled a lot of rucks but we came up with four or five really poor defensive plays that let our tries in.

"But when you're continuously turning the ball over like we were, especially against a team like Saints, eventually it will find you."

St Helens coach Nathan Brown:

"We did some decent stuff and some stuff at the opposite end of the scale.

"We just weren't quite consistent enough today, I didn't think. We put ourselves in a good position early on but then made a lot of errors that were just poor attention to detail.

"We never seemed to get flowing and they were probably a bit similar at times themselves.

"I just thought we let ourselves down in some really small areas of the game and that's what I was most disappointed with.

"To come to Wakefield's home ground and win like we did is pleasing, but we need to be a lot better than that going forward."

SUNDAY'S LINE-UPS

Wakefield: Mathers, Kay, Collis, Lyne, Cockayne, L Smith, T Smith, Poore, Aiton, Amor, Kirmond, Washbrook, Tautai

Replacements: Raleigh, Lauitiiti, Wilkes, Goulding

St Helens: Lomax, Makinson, Turner, Meli, Swift, Wilkin, Hohaia, Puletua, Howarth, Laffranchi, Jones, Manu, McCarthy-Scarsbrook

Replacements: Walker, Walmsley, Wellens, Soliola

Referee: J Child

Attendance: 7,985