A last gasp drop-goal from talisman Lee Briers gave Warrington Wolves a dramatic 19-18 victory over Leeds Rhinos at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Man of the match Micky Higham opened the scoring with a try for Warrington inside ten minutes, before Stefan Ratchford and Brett Hodgson also crossed the whitewash, although the visitors ran in four tries to three.
It was third time lucky as Briers split the posts to send the home side wild.
Higham put Warrington in front after five minutes when he followed up his own delicate grubber kick to touch down and Brett Hodgson kicked the first of his three goals.
Ryan Hall hit back for Leeds thanks to a one-handed flick pass from his centre Joel Moon, after first creating the position with a break out of his own half.
Young Sutcliffe then went 80 metres to score the second after pouncing on a stray pass from Warrington half-back Stefan Ratchford.
Both sides were hit with injuries before half-time, with Wolves’ centre Ryan Atkins and Leeds’ forward Mitch Achurch helped off with leg injuries, while the Rhinos also lost forward Brad Singleton with a hamstring injury.
Leedfs extended their lead two minutes into the second half when Hall intercepted Grix’s pass to sprint the length of the field to score his second try.
Hardaker was once more off target with the goal but the Wolves drew level on 54 minutes when Ratchford spotted a gap in the Leeds defence and squeezed over from dummy half for his side’s second try.
The momentum was clearly with Warrington but Leeds struck once more on the hour when Hardaker took a return pass from Sutcliffe to go in for a fourth try and this time he added the goal from close to the posts.
But back came Warrington as Joel Monaghan palmed the ball back from Briers’ high kick for Hodgson to touch down. Hodgson’s third goal made it 18-18 and, in a frantic finale, Briers was twice wide with drop-goal attempts before finally hitting the target to send the home crowd wild!
Man of the match Micky Higham
Try scorer Stefan Ratchford
Micky Higham shares a joke with Tony Smith
FOR MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE
