St Helens u19 21 Warrington Wolves u19 20

WOLVES’ under 19s side slipped to their first defeat of the new season as they succumbed at the death to St Helens.

Tries from Nathan Ainsworth, Ryan Jones, Pat Moran and Liam Aspin had put Stuart Barrow’s side in a position of strength, but Brad Billsborough’s drop-goal with two minutes remaining snatched the victory for the hosts.

After the game, Barrow expressed his hope that the team would use the game positively going forward.

“We failed to capitalise on numerous chances and that proved costly in the end with Saints snatching a deserved win at the death,” he said.

“Hopefully it will prove to be a good learning curve and we can take some lessons from it.

Wolves opened the scoring early when Ainsworth’s run from dummy-half saw him break through the Saints defence to score from long range before Jones utilised the blind-side from the ruck after Sam Storey was held just short to stretch the lead.

Matt Costello got Saints on the board, but Moran crashed over next to the posts to give Wolves a 16-4 lead at the break.

Saints’ pressure after the interval told when Jordan Olmez scored, but Aspin held off three defenders to restore Wolves’ two-score lead.

Sadly, that was as good as it got for the visitors as tries from Jordan Gibbons and Mike Wheldon brought Saints level before Billsborough’s late intervention.

Barrow’s side host Widnes Vikings in their next game on Saturday, April 8.

Wolves: Charlie Phythian; Liam Jones, Jack Roper, Sam Storey, Ryan Jones; Conor Taylor, Harry Reardon; Alex Tankard, Nathan Ainsworth, Tom Pinder, Ellis Gillam, Matty Kilgannon, Pat Moran. Subs: Liam Aspin, Jack Wilson, Ellis Robson, Jack Cottington.