Adrian Lam's reaction to Wigan Warriors' 28-16 win against Wakefield

The final scoreline looked comfortable, but until the hour-mark the sides were locked 12-12 as Trinity defied their lowly position.

This was Wigan's first game of three in the space of nine days, and Lam said: "I know it wasn't pretty, it was a bit scrappy, but it was the game we needed.

"There was a time they were attacking set after set on our line, and I was proud of our efforts."

Wigan fell 12-0 down inside the first quarter but Lam was quick to praise Chris Chester's outfit, who are still without a win since the season restarted.

"There were a couple of brain snaps but Wakefield were outstanding, as hard as any game we've played since lockdown," said Lam, who thought Liam Farrell was the best player on the pitch.

"After 20 minutes I was a bit confused. We didn't do too much wrong, really, but the team rallied together and found the resilience to level it off by half-time and then they were outstanding in the second-half, so I was pretty happy about that.

"Our defence was outstanding in the second-half, our young players played a lot of minutes which was the plan. When you've got the Cup ahead of you it can derail your thought process and even at 12-0 down, I didn't feel it was an attitude issue, I felt it was a technical issue and we fixed that."

Bevan French scored two of their five tries with Jackson Hastings, Oliver Gildart and Sam Powell also crossing. Zak Hardaker kicked four goals.

Wigan, who are level on win percentage with Warrington at the top of the table, play their first derby of the season against St Helens on Tuesday ahead of a Challenge Cup semi-final with Leeds on Saturday.

Lam confirmed Sean O'Loughlin was rested to protect him for the Cup tie.

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