Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell pleased with 'promising' 60 minutes against Wigan Warriors

Matty Ashurst’s testimonial was Trinity’s major pre-season match and had to be ended early when floodlight failure brought an end to proceedings 17 minutes from time.

But head coach Powell was delighted by ​the action on the pitch with his side leading 22-12 at the time of the abandonment.

He said: "I thought we were great, really good.

"Obviously it’s 60 minutes, but it’s 60 minutes for us of loads of lessons.

"There were lots of quality things we did with and without the ball and I’m really pleased. Our pack in particular stood up exceptionally well.

"If you rewind back to the start of pre-season we were really skinny in the middle. So, if you look where we are – we had to put together a middle unit that has faced up to a really formidable challenge from Wigan and handled it really well.

“From a recruitment perspective and a coaching perspective we’ve had to mold together a group of people and deliver a performance like we did.

"Both pre-season games we’ve played have been really promising. For us it’s about what we can do? And how good can this team be? We are in a great position.”

Powell did not want the floodlight failure to be the big story to come from a positive night.

He added: “It would be churlish to try and make that the big story. First of all it is Matty Ashurst’s testimonial game and for him it is phenomenal. He has done a great job for the club.

“I think, that has to come first. It was to celebrate his career and it was great to see so many fans come out.

“Then I think we dominated for pretty much all the first half, in terms of territory and possession, and we scored some smart tries. Defensively I thought we were excellent.

“For the 20 minutes in the second half that was a real battle, it was a really good 20 minutes but we found a way to get some field position and then the game a little bit. So I don’t think it should be about the lights. It is disappointing, but the players did what they needed to on the field and I think we’ll grow again from what we saw."

Trinity’s first competitive game sees them away to York Knights in the 1895 Cup on Sunday.