Wakefield 56, Cougars 16

LEE CROOKS watched Keighley's top five Play-Off hopes due at Belle Vue -- then warned that players' careers were on the line.

The Cougars were 28-10 down at half-time and then crumbled before Trinity's half-back partnership of Garen Casey and Roger Kenworthy, who scored four tries. And Crooks was not amused.

"Although the season is not over there is nothing we can do about the top five. Now the players are playing for contracts for next season.

"I had thought that on our day we could match it with any team in this division. Today has proved me wrong. Wakefield are a very good side, they are physically much stronger than we are, and as a club we can learn from what they have achieved," he said.

Keighley simply struggled to keep up with the pace of the second half as Wakefield took total control.

Trinity led 6-0 through an Adam Hughes try and Casey's goal before disaster struck for the Cougars. First on-loan fullback jamie Benn and then centre Jason Laurence departed to the sin bin. Benn left the field after nine minutes for obstructing Trinity winger Josh Bostock as he chased his own kick near the Cougars' line. Three minutes later Laurence walked for dissent at an offside decision.

"I though we showed some guts to weather that storm," said Crooks as his side conceded just one try, the first of Kenworthy's four. And once they were back to full strength Cougars replied almost immediately through Laurence who had only been back ont he field a minute.

Christian Tyrer and Chris Robinson played a sharp one-two before David Larder supplied a neat final pass for Laurence to race over.

But then Trinity took control. A reverse pass from Casey sent Kenworthy racing past Jason Donohue for his second try and the first of three Trinity scores inside 10 minutes with Simon Hicks and John Wray, playing opposite his brother Simon, also touching down before half time.

In between though the Cougars at least had the consolation of Jason Lee's superb first try.

Fred Sapatu, the pick of Keighley's forwards, charged past a weak tackle from Gary Lord and fed Kiwi Alex Smits, with Smits holding on to the ball long enough to draw the Trinity cover and give Lee an unchallenged sprint to the corner.

Wakefield were then rightly reduced to twelve as Australian loose forward Matt Fuller was sent off for hitting opposite number Dave Larder with an elbow to the face as he raced into a gap.

Larder was helped groggily from the field, Fuller headed to the dressing rooms and Benn kicked the penalty to leave Trinity with their 28-10 interval lead.

Then it all went wrong.

"I thought at the start of the second half we could make a game of it, but the players had other ideas," thundered Crooks. "They crumbled under pressure and played dumb football. We consistently took the wrong option, the players didn't stand up and be counted, and in defence they just knocked us off like flies."

Keighley really were almost that bad.

While there was a bright spot, after Trinity's opening second half score from that man Kenworthy, with a determined Darren Summerill charge disallowed for a knock-on over the line, followed by Jason Leee's second try, in reality it was all Trinity.

Lee's try was scant consolation, but capped a fine game for the elusive Welsh internationalas he climbed well to field Robinson's towering 'bomb' in the Trinity in-goal area.

But it was Wakefield's stand-in full back David Mycoe who claimed a brace and Kenworthy added his fourth to take Wakefield past the half century.

Wakefield: Holland (Mycoe 24), Bostock, Law (Briggs 51), Jon Wray, Casey, Kenworthy, Stephenson (Simon Hicks 22, Pasul Hicks 68), Paul Hicks (Hughes 24), Lord (Stephenson 55), Whakarau, Fisher, Fuller.

Cougars: Benn, Wray (Foster 19), McDonald, Laurence, Lee, Tyrer (Longo 40), Robinson (Tyrer 51), Stephenson (Smits 24), Donohue, Campbell, Sapatu, Summerill, Larder (Ramshaw 40).

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