Wakefield Trinity Ladies 'happy' with last-eight draw but won't be taking Challenge Cup quarter final lightly, insists Wayne Hirst

Trinity will face League 1 side Keighley Albion - the lowest-ranked team left in the competition - in the last eight later this month (June 23).

And although Wakefield will be favourites, Hirst insists that nothing is guaranteed.

“If you were going to pick somebody out, it would’ve been Keighley, so yeah, we are happy with the draw,” he said.

“But it is not one we can take lightly because we don’t know much about them. We won’t be taking them lightly at all. We have still got to work for it.”

He added: “We could be putting ourselves in a semi-final in our first season in Super League, so I couldn’t be happier if we do get there.”

Last Sunday, Hirst’s side lost for the fourth time in five league games in 2019 following a 66-0 defeat against St Helens.

The Trinity coach was pleased by the improvement in performance and felt that the final scoreline was harsh on his players.

Saints had 11 different try-scorers as they bounced back from defeat against Castleford Tigers.

The visitors raced into a 32-0 lead before half-time with scores from Tara Jones, Jodie Cunningham, Naomi Williams and a brace from Faye Gaskin.

Saints continued to dominate in the second half with Claire Mullaney, Zoe Harris, Danni Bush, Eboni Partington, Lizzie Gladman and Leah Burke all crossing.

“I was a bit gutted with the scoreline because we performed quite well for large parts of the game,” said Hirst.

“It was just little things that let us down or St Helens were too good at times. Because they are a good side, they are well structured and they have got some good players.

“But I was really happy with a lot of the things we did, there was improvement even though the scoreline doesn’t really suggest it.

“One thing that didn’t help was the injuries that we got, we lost two people in the first half with clashed heads, both went to hospital. And then we had someone come off with a head injury and then another with a leg injury. So we did the last 20 minutes with no subs.”