Wakefield Trinity: Can Betfred Super League strugglers turn the tide as Luke Gale included to face Hull FC?

For 53 minutes against Warrington Wolves last Friday, everyone associated with Wakefield Trinity could have been forgiven for thinking maybe, just maybe, their season was finally starting to turn.

The Betfred Super League strugglers were keeping one of the competition's high-flyers locked at 12-12. That is until Kevin Proctor was shown a red card for a high tackle on Matty Ashton to leave the visitors down to 12 men.

What turned out to be a 32-18 defeat at the Halliwell Jones Stadium left the Super League table making for grim reading for Trinity: No wins, no draws, 11 defeats, and just 71 points scored with 379 against for a points difference of -249.

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It does not get any easier for Mark Applegarth's side as they welcome a Hull FC side buoyed by a stoic 14-10 win over Wigan Warriors to the Be Well Support Stadium on Thursday, live on Sky Sports, but the head coach is doing his best to maintain a positive outlook.

"I was proud of the performance, it was a gutsy effort and they have kept on fighting 'til the end against one of the contenders in difficult circumstances," Applegarth said following the defeat to the Wolves.

"Warrington got off to a fast start going 12-0 up but our lads fronted up really well and fought their way back into the game and it was an even game at half-time.

"Now we have a few bodies back you can see the spirit in the squad and there's plenty of positives to take out of the performance."

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Although no stranger to relegation battles at times, Wakefield have been ever-present in Super League since winning promotion back to the top flight in 1998 and have reached the play-offs three times - albeit with the last of those appearances coming in 2012.

Two-time champions in the 1960s, Trinity are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year too and their historic Belle Vue home, which once graced the silver screen in This Sporting Life, is undergoing a long-awaited redevelopment to modernise the venue which dates back to the first season of the Northern Union in 1895.

On the pitch though, Wakefield currently find themselves four points adrift of safety and are favourites to slip through the trap door in the final season of automatic promotion and relegation before Super League places will be decided by grading criteria as well as on-field performance.

A look at the statistics gives some insight beyond just their results. After 11 rounds, Trinity have gained the fewest metres in the competition (11,564) with an average gain of just 5.99 metres.

Now we have a few bodies back you can see the spirit in the squad and there's plenty of positives to take out of the performance.

They have the lowest number of tries (12), tackle busts (271) and clean breaks too, while on an individual level, three of their players are among the top 10 for try causes and two more are in the top 10 for break causes.

The departure of key squad members like half-back Jacob Miller, pack mainstays David Fifita and Tinirau Arona, and free-scoring winger Tom Johnstone - currently averaging a try a game for Catalans Dragons - has not helped matters for last season's 10th-place finishers either.

It is hoped the recent signing of former England half-back Luke Gale, back in Super League after starting the season with Betfred Championship part-timers Keighley Cougars, will be able to help Trinity arrest their difficult start to the campaign.

Having been a spectator for the Warrington defeat, Gale is in line to feature against former club Hull FC on Thursday after being named in Applegarth's 21-man squad for the match, although the 38-year-old warned his new recruit faces competition from one of last week's try-scorers in Morgan Smith.

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"It would have a bit of extra meaning but it's a bigger game than Luke Gale and Hull," Applegarth, who has ex-New Zealand international second row Proctor available too after he avoided a ban of his red card, said in his weekly pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of the Black and Whites.

"It's about the team, and he'd be the first one to put his hand up and say that. We'll do what's right for the team and not just that romance story about Luke Gale playing against his old club.

"Luke Gale will play a big part for Wakefield Trinity, but Morgan Smith did exactly what I asked of him [against Warrington]. He scored a lovely, well-deserved try."

Watch Wakefield Trinity take on Hull FC in the opening fixture of Round 12 of the 2023 Betfred Super League season live on Sky Sports Arena from 7.30pm on Thursday (kick-off 8pm). Also stream on NOW TV.