Warrington Wolves 20-22 Wigan Warriors

Saturday 20th February 2010

Warriors go top

Wigan staged a dramatic second-half fightback to earn their first victory at the Halliwell Jones Stadium at the eighth attempt as they beat Warrington 22-20 to go top of the Engage Super League.

The Warriors were heading for their first defeat under new coach Michael Maguire when they trailed 16-4 at the break but they scored three second-half tries to turn the game on its head in front of a sell-out 13,024 crowd.

The Wolves almost snatched victory in a breathless finish when substitute David Solomona forced his way over the line with just 71 seconds left but video referee Phil Bentham disallowed the try for a knock-on.

It was one of three Warrington scores ruled out by the fourth official but the Wolves have only themselves to blame for their first defeat of the season after frittering away a 12-point lead.

The home side were unlucky to lose influential stand-off Lee Briers through injury on 51 minutes while the outcome was tough on in-form winger Chris Riley, who grabbed his seventh try in three games to help put his side in command.

Amos Roberts, who switched from the wing to full-back in the absence of Cameron Phelps, also continued his fine start to the season by touching down twice for the third time to take his tally to six.

His first, after only eight minutes, gave Wigan the perfect start yet there was little hint of danger when the flying Australian took a pass from captain for the day Andy Coley on halfway.

After standing up loose forward Ben Harrison, the speed merchant wrong-footed the chasing three-quarters in a thrilling dash to the corner.

Warrington were slow into their stride but they drew level on 18 minutes when scrum-half Richie Myler took a pinpoint pass from Michael Monaghan to scoot through a gap in the visitors' defence to touch down.

Briers added the conversion to put his side in front and then combined with full-back Richard Mathers to create an overlap for centre Chris Bridge to get Riley over at the corner.

Warrington thought they had scored again when Monaghan was the first to reach Briers' grubber kick to the line but the try was disallowed for a knock-on.

However, the Wolves maintained the pressure and substitute Solomona forced his way over from close range for his first try for the club, taking two defenders over the line with him, and Briers' second goal made it 16-4 at half-time.

Warrington looked to tighten their grip on the game in the second half as the visitors wilted and Briers had a try disallowed for a knock-on by Solomona, who caused all sorts of problems for Wigan with his offloads.

The Wolves suffered a blow when Briers hobbled off after 51 minutes and they conceded a second try to Roberts four minutes later, despite a hint of an obstruction by team-mate Martin Gleeson.

That gave Wigan just the encouragement they needed and they cut the deficit further on 58 minutes when Roberts carved out an opening for Darrell Goulding to cross at the corner.

After missing with his first two conversion attempts, Pat Richards found the target from the touchline and then put over a penalty to level the scores after Warrington skipper Adrian Morley had been pulled up for a high tackle.

Then came a moment of magic from stand-off Sam Tomkins as he regathered his own kick over the Wolves defence and combined with Thomas Leuluai to get older brother Joel over for the all-important try.

Richards' third goal put the visitors six points in front but a Monaghan 40-20 kick set up the position for second rower Louis Anderson to charge over for Warrington's fourth try seven minutes from the end.

Centre Bridge had the chance to earn a point with the conversion but his first kick at goal went inches wide of the left-hand upright and then came the disallowed score from Solomona.