Chester: It’s nice to finally get off the mark

Wakefield head coach Chris Chester admitted it was nice to finally secure a first win in 2017 after some promising performances in their opening two matches.

A controversial late penalty try from Jacob Miller saw Trinity snatch victory in the last ten minutes.

“It’s really pleasing that we’ve come here and got a result,” Chester said.

“I don’t think we’ve been far off these last couple of weeks.

“A bounce of the ball against Hull FC and coming unstuck in the last 10 to 15 minutes at Huddersfield.”

Chester wasn’t concerned by the manner they claimed all two points against St Helens.

“He’s tackling him without the ball and whether it’s a penalty try I don’t know but we’ll take that,” he said.

“It was definitely a penalty whichever way you look at it.”

Chester said it was difficult losing prop Anthony England during the warm up but thought his team were good value for the win.

“We lost Anthony England and had to reshuffle the pack but I thought over the 80 minutes we were the better team,” he said.

“I thought first 40 minutes we kicked the ball a lot better than what they did and completed very high.

“We always knew they were going to come back at us that second half but we just found a way to win and really pleased.”

Chester admitted there were a few decisions which went against them that could potentially have handed the victory to Saints.

“I just thought there were a couple of really big calls in that second half,” he said.

“A couple of penalties from Dave Fifita with the play-the-ball and the high shot that I thought was a little bit unfair which gave them a bit of field position.”

Chester was full of praise for half-backs Jacob Miller and Sam Williams and was especially pleased with their game management.

“I thought both Milky and Sammy were very good,” he said.

“I think they only had one-and-a-half or two games in pre-season together and we’re only three games in.

“I had a bit of a crack at them last week about their game management which needed to be a little bit better and I thought it was very good today.”

One of the things which disappointed Chester was the way they took their foot of the gas after the break.

“I thought we were guilty of going into a shell again.

“We went in 10-4 at half-time and were a little bit conservative that second half similar to how we played against Huddersfield the week before.”

Mason Caton-Brown was another player which caught the eye of Chester during the win over Saints.

The winger, who joined on a two-year deal from Salford, scored a debut try for Trinity.

“I thought he carried the ball really well for us tonight as did the rest of the outside backs,” he added.

“He’s a special talent and has some pace to burn.”

The 23-year-old’s arrival has helped to provide competition for places which hasn’t always been the case, explained Chester.

“He’ll put some pressure on people like Ben Jones-Bishop and the other wingers at the club which is good,” he said.

“We’ve got some genuine competition this season which we probably haven’t had over the last few years.”