‘Featherstone deserved to win’ admits Daryl Powell as Wakefield Trinity suffer surprise Challenge Cup exit at local rivals

Fev’s Gareth Gale proved to be the match-winner in golden point extra time in incredibly muddy conditions at the Millennium Stadium to secure a spot in Monday night’s draw.

Powell said after the 14-10 defeat: “I thought our first half was really poor and Featherstone controlled territory with the slope and we never really got into the game. They deserved that lead.

“We pegged them back in the second half and we had a little bit more control but I never thought we were great. There were loads of errors and we came up with a really dumb play at the end to give them the game.

“It was disappointing from a number of areas but we know what the Championship’s about now that’s for sure. There are a few boys who will have got a whack on the chin today and they’ve got to come back and be better. We’ve got to be better as a team.

“We are trying to find out exactly what we are, we have signed a lot of new players and on evidence before today I thought we had a pretty good team. I still think that but we have got to manage situations better than what we did today.”

Two late first half tries from Conor Wynne gave Featherstone a 10-0 lead but second half efforts from Oliver Pratt and Romain Franco, as well as a Mason Lino penalty, got Wakefield level and ensured golden point extra time.

26 years had passed since their previous encounter. Fans just had to wait that little bit more for a winner to be decided, with Gale splendidly running 60 metres to send Fev through.

Powell added: “They had five sets more than us in the first half and a lot of them were on our line. That is always difficult, particularly in conditions like this. It was one of those games that was always going to be a slugfest. I thought we handled it poorly and Featherstone deserved to win it.

“I don’t think we managed the ugliness of it very well. It was way off what we’re aiming for. I don’t think we were good enough.

“They had more repeats than us, their ball control was better than us and, if I’m honest, I thought they had a bit more go about them. That is something we need to find an answer to.

“I thought we should have won the game after getting back to 10-10 but we made errors and made a fatal decision at the end.”