Disappointed coach Daryl Powell felt his Wakefield Trinity side veered from “excellent” to “pretty poor” in their 24-22 home loss to Leeds Rhinos.

Trinity’s first defeat in eight games dented their hopes of a top-two finish in Betfred Super League and came after they led 16-0 and 22-6. A converted try three minutes from time won it for the league leading visitors and Powell said: “I’m obviously disappointed.

“I thought we had an excellent first half, I didn’t think Leeds deserved that [try by Brodie Croft] at the end, but they got it and I thought our second half was pretty poor, to be honest. I thought Leeds chased us down after we scored first in the second half.

Here's how Leeds Rhinos hit back from 16 points down to beat Wakefield Trinity 2...

Caleb Hamlin-Uele dashes clear to score for Wakefield Trinity against Leeds Rhinos. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.

placeholder image — Caleb Hamlin-Uele dashes clear to score for Wakefield Trinity against Leeds Rhinos. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.

“We made too many errors, we couldn’t get any pressure and we gave penalties away in yardage which really hurt us. There’s some key lessons in big games for us, that we need to be a little bit better, but it took until the last five minutes for them to reel us in.

“While you could see it coming, I still felt we had a fair bit of fight about us. We just couldn’t get any pressure on their line. I always thought we were going to score when we were there.”

The coach admitted his men didn’t get their “clarity of thought under pressure” right in the second half, but insisted: “I was really proud of the boys - we had a dig there. I reckon if we played Leeds next week we’d have a fair shot at them. They are a good team, but I think we are as well.”