Davis delivers derby joy for Wakefield

Castleford 14 Wakefield

Wakefield continued their vendetta against their neighbours with a well-earned victory in a hugely enterprising local derby – their first win in Super League this season.

Castleford lost to Wakefield in the Challenge Cup last month, but they made a prompt start in trying to erase that from the memory when they scored after three minutes, Danny Orr exchanging passes with Michael Smith before Damian Gibson gave Michael Eager the chance to stretch over.

Eager was denied a second when he was penalised for a double movement as Cas threw the ball around like men in a hurry. The strain on Wakefield was further in evidence when Matt Seers was sin-binned for holding back Paul Mellor. Soon after, rival half-backs Brad Davis and Francis Maloney followed after a furious punch-up.

A penalty from Wayne Bartrim, who had earlier landed his conversion, extended Castleford's lead, but Wakefield were still a man down when they hit back, Gareth Ellis taking Jamie Field's pass through some weak tackling.

Seers almost marked his return with a try, his effort being denied because of some preliminary juggling. Wakefield did manage to reduce the deficit, however, when Olivier Elima was held down.

Immediately before half-time they took the lead when Davis got his pass away to Seers, who this time got one that counted. Ian Knott missed the conversion but put over a penalty early in the second half when Bartrim went high on David March.

It was still a precarious lead, but the Wildcats were still producing chances of their own and after Richard Newlove narrowly failed to score from a Ben Jeffries kick, the Australian stand-off delivered another pass for Davis to touch down. Knott made it a 10 point gap.

With 13 minutes to play Andy Lynch got a wonderful pass out of the back door for Mark Lennon to dart over for a dazzling try, converted by Bartrim to bring back echoes of all the other matches Wakefield have lost from a winning position.

A long range offside penalty from Knott gave them a little more breathing space. It still required plenty of enthusiastic defence to keep out the increasingly desperate Tigers, but Wakefield were full value for that important first win.

Castleford: Gibson, Pryce, Eagar, Mellor, Rogers, Orr, Maloney, Sykes, Bartrim, Lynch, Smith, Fritz, Hudson. Subs used: Johnson, Harland, Lennon, Jackson.

Wakefield: Halpenny, Wells, Ellis, Seers, Newlove, Jeffries, Davis, Field, March, Korkidas, Slattery, Knott, Vowles. Subs used: Handforth, Elima, Wrench, Snitch.

Referee: K Kirkpatrick (Warrington).