Warrington Wolves coach Tony Smith hails Joel Monaghan after his winning try
Last Updated: 04/05/15 12:24pm
Warrington coach Tony Smith sang the praises of his captain Joel Monaghan after he scored a match-winning try to seal the Cheshire derby.
Widnes were on course to claim their first away win of the season when they led 20-18 with just 12 seconds left but winger Monaghan picked up the ball by his boot laces from Stefan Ratchford's pass to score his second try of the matchthat secured a 22-20 victory.
"What a piece of skill," Smith said. "It was a really good play to set it up but to pick that up off his toes and then beat a couple to get across the line shows his class.
"He's still a top-notch finisher in the game world-wide. He could easily have fumbled that but to come up with that under pressure is remarkable."
The outcome was tough on Widnes captain Kevin Brown, who scored two opportunist tries, although Smith believes his second effort on 55 minutes ought to have been disallowed.
"I don't think we should have been behind at that stage anyway," he said. "If the video referee had been here today, the Brown try would have been disallowed because (Ben) Harrison had hold of him whilst he was stationary on the ground."
Tough one to take
Widnes coach Denis Betts, too, was upset over a decision by referee Ben Thaler to disallow a try to winger Jack Owens for obstruction 13 minutes from the end.
"I've seen it on the video and it's a try," Betts said. "We've seen loads of them this year, we've actually scored a couple of tries ourselves off that play this year on TV when they can go to the video referee.
"It's a tough one to take but then you could go to Kevin Brown's second try and ask if he was tackled.
"They are big turning points in the game."
The Vikings remain in the bottom four while the Wolves climb into the top four but Smith was not impressed by his side's display.
"I don't think it was convincing by any means," he said. "It was a pretty average game. It was exciting because of the scoreline.
"We found a way (to win) and we should be happy about that but I don't think Widnes were special. They've been very good recently but I don't they played to their potential either.
"There were a few individual performances from us that were good, however. I thought Stefan Ratchford was outstanding, Ben Currie came up with another top-class performance and Ben Westwood ran himself to a stand-still."