Wakefield Trinity refuse to be reeled in to Middle-8s

Trinity won their opening four games this year, but the 25-22 loss to Huddersfield Giants two days ago was their eighth defeat in the last 10 Betfred Super League rounds.

Wakefield have slipped to seventh in the table, three points clear of ninth-placed Huddersfield.

With Giants and Catalans Dragons, who are 10th, beginning to find some form, Trinity are in danger of being dragged into the middle-eights Qualifiers when the competition splits after 23 rounds.

Chester admits his team are “not clicking” at the moment, but insisted they are not glancing over their shoulders at the sides below them.

“We are still looking up,” he said.

“We are only three points off [sixth-placed] Leeds Rhinos.

“It has hurt us – myself, the staff and the boys – that we’ve not been able to bridge that gap between us and Leeds and the teams above.

“We made some uncharacteristic errors on Sunday, from some senior blokes, but the effort was there.

“We need to start believing in ourselves a little bit.

“I think we are maybe a bit low on confidence, but we need to go to Widnes on Friday night and put in a performance and get the result.

“That’s the most important thing now moving forward.”

Of the match at Halton Stadium, Chester added: “Widnes are very, very hard to beat at home.

“We have got to make sure our attitude’s spot on.

“We will certainly need a better performance and a better start to the game than we had on Sunday and hopefully we can get that.”

With Scott Grix on the casualty list, Ryan Hampshire could continue at full-back.

Chester described his performance against Giants as “very good” and he said: “He took some good options.

“He is a running threat and I thought defensively he was pretty good as well.

“He is playing well, I am pleased for him.

“He has been pestering me to play at full-back for the last few weeks and he got an opportunity.

“I still think he will make a better half-back so that gives us some options there as well.”