The Wolves can have no complaint at this painful defeat at the hands of their old rivals from Liverpool St Helens.
Despite good periods in both halves for the Wolves, it was ultimately a poor showing from which it seemed that nothing had been learnt from the game at Rochdale the week before.
Coach Brendan Thomas had drawn up their game plan to deal with the all-too evident fault lines.
But his words either fell on deaf ears or too many of the players do not yet possess the wherewithal or skills to put the plan into practice. Consequently, the Wolves found themselves 25-13 adrift after 50 minutes and started to try and play frantic catch-up rugby, during which they made matters worse by readily coughing up the ball.
Liverpool St Helens may not be tipped as contenders this season but they still had plenty of experienced players who know exactly what to do when the ball comes their way.
As Wilmslow quickly squandered their possession in the last half hour, the St Helens side patiently played the ball through the phases in the Wilmslow half, eventually wearing down the home side’s defences.
For the first 20 minutes, the Wolves had probably shaded events. There had been several promising breaks featuring Craig Cooper, Ben Day and Mike Black, only for the ball to be lost with overly-hasty risky passes.
The visitors then got into their stride with some patient play, recycling the ball across the field several times before creating an overlap on their left for Matty Cunliffe to sprint away before slipping inside to fly-half Greg Smith, Paul McLindon kicking the conversion. From the restart, Liverpool quickly worked their way back into the Wolves 22 and when a clearing kick failed to find touch Ian Stanley – a player you can’t afford to hand free ball to – touched down.
Throughout, the Wolves lineout was the most effective part of their game and their third steal against the throw saw hope raised when Cooper burst through the middle to release Richard Hughes, who scored close to the posts.
Without a recognised kicker, it was one of those days, and the conversion went begging, as did several other kickable chances.
As it was, McLindon wasn’t long landing a simple penalty on the half hour but the Wolves had further opportunities, as winger Sam Cutts made some good breaks, and there was a touch of genuine class from Hughes, who slipped on the turf at the critical moment.
Attacking scrums were curtailed by knock ons at the base of the scrum, meaning all they had to show for this was a Jack Harrison penalty just before half- time, when more composure on the ball from Wilmslow could have produced so much more.
Another inaccurate clearing kick was snaffled up by the visiting forwards before their back line released Matt Cunliffe for a try on the left.
The Wolves started the second half with fierce intent, going close a couple of times before Ben Day deservedly scored.
The game was still winnable but the conversion was missed and within a minute or so, the ball was kicked to Cunliffe, who showed his gratitude by chipping the defence and picking up the loose ball as it squirted around before handing it on to McLindon for the defining score.
With the wheels now falling off the Wilmslow wagon, the Saints had half an hour to round off the game with two more converted tries.
For the third week in succession, the Wolves had gone awol in the final 30 minutes and paid by losing three perfectly winnable games.
There’s plenty for the players and management to work on as they prepare for this week’s tricky visit to Kirkby Lonsdale.
