VIDEO: 'Hard work' the only way out of rut for Wakefield Trinity, says assistant Lee Gilmour

Wakefield Trinity head coach Chris Chester with assistant Lee Gilmour. PIC: Matthew Merrick.

Trinity have lost eight of their last nine Super League outings following a 36-16 defeat against Castleford Tigers at Belle Vue on Friday night.

Wakefield travel to Wigan Warriors on Thursday night (7.45pm) needing a win to keep their play-off hopes alive.

Victory will put them just two points behind fifth-placed Wigan while a defeat could leave them six points adrift of the top five.

“There is no simple fix, you can’t wave a magic wand,” said Gilmour.

“The only way you get out of any sort of rut is by working hard. I thought we got a response [against Castleford], in a lot of areas.

“We probably need to sharpen up on our good-ball attack in that 10 and 20-metre area.

“I would imagine that we would be looking to pick a team based on effort, the guys who are going to turn up and work all those one per-centres that I spoke about in the lead up to the game.”

James Batchelor brings down Jordan Rankin. PIC: James Heaton.

Gilmour admits that Friday night’s derby defeat “hurt” Trinity, as they lost for the 13th game running against Castleford.

Wakefield led at the break and were right in the contest until 10 minutes from time, until the Tigers scored three quickfire tries to claim a comfortable win.

“The loss has hurt us a bit,” admitted Gilmour.

“The boys are down, but we have got to pick them up and work hard.

Paul McShane tackles Keegan Hirst. PIC: James Heaton.

“And we have got to pick a team who are going to work their stones off and not miss the one per-centres.”

The Trinity assistant was pleased with the return of James Batchelor, who played for 80 minutes in his first game back since injury.

Gilmour added: “For any player to be out for that length of time and do 80 minutes straight, with a mixture of second row and the middle, I thought Batch carried well today and defended hard.

“Very impressive for a first game back.”

On the performance as a whole, Gilmour said: “First half was pretty pleasing, we completed high and defended really well.

“We started a little bit sluggishly in the second half and having had more ball than they did - that was disappointing.”