Wakefield Trinity need big improvement stays star winger Johnstone

Trinity scraped through 17-14, thanks to a late try by Reece Lyne, but that - and the return from injury of key duo Danny Brough and Dave Fifita - was the only positive they could take from the fifth round tie.

Wakefield coach Chris Chester accepted his team were second-best to the Betfred Championship visitors and Johnstone agrees Trinity can’t afford to play the same way when they return to Super League action.

“We are happy we are through, but it wasn’t good enough,” Johnstone conceded. “We got out-enthused, they came out really well and they stuck to it the whole game. Luckily two breaks against the run of play got us over the line and got us into the next draw.”

Half-back Brough made his comeback from a knee injury suffered in Trinity’s Super League round one defeat at Hull KR and it was prop Fifita’s first game of the season.

“Big Dave carried us really well, he attracted a lot of blokes and got us going down the field,” Johnstone observed.

“Broughy, with his kicking game, led us round the park really well.

“Obviously they are a bit rusty in their first game, after being out so long, but hopefully they’ll build some momentum and keep going and we’ll build on it as well.

“We’ve got to get back to how we were playing against Warrington and in games like that.

“We’ve just got to try and control games how we want to play and hopefully we’ll go from there and grind out wins.”

Though Johnstone wasn’t on the scoresheet against Bradford, he did combine with centre Bill Tupou to create a try for full-back Alex Walker. Johnstone recalled: “As soon as Bill got the ball and got on the outside I knew exactly what he was going to do. As soon as he flicked the ball I thought ‘yeah’. We always run a few plays the day before in the team run and I always pretend to kick the ball inside for someone and say ‘it’s going to come off some day’.

“I kicked it and luckily it bounced straight into Alex’s hands and he went under the sticks, so it paid off.”